I Care I Always Did
by HLecter511
Summary: Past memories left deep scars embedded in her mind. Not all the memories were bad, but the ones that were hurtful struck a cord in her. She tried to bury them away, but it was impossible. Impossible as she stared in her child's eyes. Impossible when she returned back to her homeland where all the memories originated from. Impossible to bury memories when she came to face him again.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter:** A Certain Past

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A flick of the hand caused all the herbal vials and ingredients to hover into the air then went inside a glass cabinet. The glass door shut right when the last vial had entered.

Students had left the large classroom with only a few supplies out that the professor easily put away with wandless magic.

Magic.

A wonderful experience it was. It wasn't the sort of magic that magician on TV and live shows performed. Real magic where it was always used in the wizardry world. Wizards and Witches, real magical beings. Supernatural creatures existed too.

The classroom that the students left behind was known as Mediwizards and Mediwitches; Magical Medication Class. The witches and wizard students, who had excelled in their academics with high marks joined the class due to their ambition to be in the medical occupation in the Witch and Wizardry world.

There were schooling for witches and wizards starting from the age of 11 through 18 years of age. These Wizardry schools taught these youngsters how to control their magical abilities. All types of classes that revolve around the wizardry world to teach students so that when they graduate, they will enter the wizardry world to look for job opportunities if they did not want to return back to the muggle world.

The muggle world being the regular life.

A muggle being someone who had no magical traits at all.

Then there were half-bloods and purebloods. Self-explanatory terms to describe someone bloodline in the wizardry world.

The bloodlines in the wizardry world did become a big thing through the years, especially in the rise of the Dark Lord, Lord Voldemort. He brought terror through the wizardry world, especially to those that were muggle borns. Muggleborns being those that have no wizardry parents, but had ended up with magical traits.

The Dark Lord brought much trouble until he became no more in the year of 1980 when the Dark Lord had gone to the Potter's household to get rid of the one year old baby boy by the name of Harry Potter.

His reason was because there had been a prophecy of him falling from his pedestal of power by a boy born around the end of July. The Dark Lord tried to kill the baby boy, but with the love of Harry's mother, Lily Potter, the killing curse was reflected off Harry and back at the Dark Lord, which killed him. Harry was left with a lightning bolt scar with no parents as the Dark Lord killed both the boy's mother and father.

When ten years had gone, the Wizardry world was in an uproar when Harry Potter showed his appearance. He attended Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in Scotland now.

Yet where this particular classroom was located, it was not Hogwarts.

Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

Located in America and founded in the seventeenth century. A top notch school with a lot of history, but not as much as Hogwarts. Ilvermorny did have a high reputation to uphold as being a strong, educational school.

The professor that dismissed the class of young witches and wizards had actually graduated from Hogwarts years ago from the Gryffindor house.

A professor with a well known last name, who could live off the family fortune and name, but did not do so. Instead, they studied to become a Healer after Hogwarts. Yet during the years of the Dark Lord, the professor came to America to hide away from the Dark Lord and his followers.

A knock on the door caused the professor to pause behind their desk. Their back to the door.

"Mr. Rizo, if you forgot your cauldron again, we—"

"I am not, Mr. Rizo, Professor Octavia Flamel."

The familiar voice caused Octavia to whirl around with a small grin at the sight of a familiar headmaster of Hogwarts.

"Headmaster Dumbledore." Octavia Flamel smiled as the older man held out his arms toward her.

Octavia walked up to Dumbledore to hug her old headmaster than pulled back with a small grin. Yet she was curious of Dumbledore's sudden appearance. He was the one that actually got her to America all those years ago.

"This is a surprise." Octavia softly said.

Minutes passed and the two found each other across from one another in her office with tea and biscuits where they caught up on the many years that they could not talk face to face.

"So tell me, why so far from Scotland? Don't you have to get ready to start up the next year of Hogwarts soon?" Octavia asked, wondering what Dumbledore's intention was for his sudden surprise.

A sigh escaped Dumbledore. He lowered his cup of tea away from his lips to stare at her with a twinkle in his blue eyes.

"I have good news that is a request at the same time."

At times, Octavia felt that Dumbledore spoke in riddles.

"What's that?"

"To come home."

That got her mouth to drop as she couldn't believe what she had just heard. It has been ten almost eleven years since she been away from her homeland. The reason for her departure was due to who her descendents were. The Dark Lord wanted Octavia for her knowledge of the Philosopher's Stone.

She was the only living descendent of Nicolas and Perenelle Flamel.

Everyone knew Nicolas as the creator of the Philosopher's Stone. His wife and he used the power of the Philosopher's Stone to create the Elixir of Life. They lived for for six hundred plus years. Not many knew that the immortal couple had a son, who later had a daughter, which was Octavia. Octavia heard through gossip that Nicolas and Perenelle had decided to get rid of the stone and live on what Elixir of Life that they have left. This all due to an incident at Hogwarts last year.

The knowledge of the Philosopher's Stone was passed down to Octavia. Her late father met his fate with her mother due to the Dark Lord and his followers. Her father didn't give up the information, so the Dark Lord turned to Octavia.

The night before Harry Potter's parents were killed, Dumbledore got to Octavia with a portkey and sent her off across the ocean to America, where she became a professor.

A professor that had managed to make the proposition of creating classes to better prepare those that aim to become Healers or Mediwizards. Her proposition actually got approved. Her classes were formed for students in their 6th and 7th years. It was starting to spread throughout the other continents to witches and wizardry schools.

"I'm sorry? Did you say to come back home as in England or come back home as in Hogwarts?" Octavia asked in a quick manner.

An amused chuckle escaped the older wizard as he gave her a simple nod to assure her that was what he meant to say.

"Both my dear."

That answer got her to sit back away from him. She looked around her office to see if someone was going to pop out of somewhere to tell her that this was all a prank.

Octavia glanced back at Dumbledore to see his blue eyes twinkled with much amusement. Shaking her head, Octavia let out a deep sigh and she ran her right hand through her dark brunette hair.

"Do you know what you are asking?"

"I do. That is why I wish for you to teach at Hogwarts on what you are teaching here."

"I can't just get up and leave this place."

"If you must know, I already got a confirmed yes from the headmaster."

That made Octavia's mouth to drop as she realized how much Dumbledore could persuade someone to get what he wanted. She knew that the older wizard was good with getting others to go along with what he wanted.

"But—but what about Cato?" Octavia brought up.

The grey eyebrows of Dumbledore rose in interest and his eyes twinkled with the same emotion. The name caught Dumbledore's attention and Octavia knew why.

"Two great and powerful magical beings fused in one. I always thought of that when I heard that you were pregnant."

All those years ago, Octavia did not leave her homeland alone.

Instead, she barely escaped her home with—at the time an almost three years old— Cato. Thankfully, Dumbledore had appeared and helped Octavia out to take out Death Eaters before he shot her off with a portkey to America.

When Dumbledore made that comment, Octavia bowed her head just a little with her eyes shut as she thought about who Cato's father was. The comment was true in its own way. For Cato's father was powerful when it came to magic, especially the Dark Arts.

"Is he still at the school?" Octavia asked softly.

A small frown came onto Dumbledore's lips as he noticed how Octavia wouldn't say his name. It was still clear that Octavia was still wounded emotionally and mentally from the man that broke her heart all those years ago.

"Yes, he is. Does Cato know who he is?"

"Of course. He asked questions as a child. I couldn't lie to him about it. He just doesn't know that his father was a Death Eater."

Nodding, Dumbledore got up from his seat to come closer to Octavia, as she had stood up from her seat to pace the office. To Dumbledore, Octavia was a strong young woman that raised a boy as a single mother and kept a demanding job.

"Does he know that you are offering me a teaching job at Hogwarts?"

There was a small smirk on the lips of Dumbledore and mischief in his eyes that made Octavia to know that Dumbledore wants it to be a surprise. Octavia knew that will not be a good idea yet there was no way to stop Albus Dumbledore on doing what he wanted to do.

The thought of going back home and to teach at Hogwarts was actually music to Octavia's ears. She missed Hogwarts more than anything. Though she enjoyed teaching here in America too.

Eyes on Dumbledore, Octavia could see that he will not give up until she came home. Then again, she began to wonder about something.

"Why return now?" Octavia asked with a squint of her eyes before they relaxed.

There was a sigh that escaped Dumbledore as he began to walk around her office. Occasionally he would pick up a few bottles that contained various ingredients or medical potions. His eyes came to rest on one of Octavia's prize possessions.

Her Thunderbird known as Felix, who was in his small size.

Octavia manage to figure out a way to get him to shrink to a Phoenix size, but grew to his true, large size when he was released outside.

The Thunderbird being just as rare as the Phoenix. The two species were related. She knew that Dumbledore had his Phoenix named Fawkes.

Having a Thunderbird was a great companion as they were highly loyal to those that they came to trust. Whenever Felix took flight, his long tails glide behind him, a flap of the wings created a storm.

"I believe that he is going to come back in a few more years."

"He? Wait, you don't mean…"

"Yes, dear, I mean that the Dark Lord has been making his presence known now that Harry had started school last year." Dumbledore said.

To think that the presence of the Dark Lord will start to become know made Octavia to know that if he was to come back, the war will be the judgement of whether or not the world will be free or not from his wrath and beliefs.

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After the conversation in her office, the two walked around the grounds of the school.

Octavia knew that Dumbledore was waiting for her answer on whether or not she will return back home and to accept the new job position at Hogwarts.

"Mom!"

Octavia turned around with a grin on her lips at the sight of her soon to be thirteen year old son, Cato Septimus Flamel. In the corner of her eyes, Octavia saw Dumbledore reaction at the sight of Cato. She saw a smile on his lips.

Cato Septimus Flamel was a growing boy that began to go through puberty. His voice began to crack, but was turning into a smooth mellow voice. He was already tall for his age as he stood at five feet and five inches. He kept his black hair short yet messy.

Though his eyes, came from Octavia. She had been shocked about the color of his eyes, but happy that it happen. They were an azure blue with a gentle light orange color ring around his pupils. It was as if sun rays were seeping a little out of his pupils. That could only been seen up close.

Cato took after Octavia in features a lot, except his facial structure was masculine. He did have his father's lips, but not his nose.

"Don't you supposed to be heading to class?"

"Yeah, potions is in this direction. But I saw you." Cato took a curious glance at Dumbledore.

"My, my, you have your mother's eyes."

"Um, mom?" Cato looked at her with a 'help me, who this' expression.

"Cato, this is Headmaster of Hogwarts, Albus Dumbledore."

The shocked expression was almost immediate on Cato's face to show that he knew who Dumbledore was. Dumbledore began to chuckle as Cato stared at Dumbledore with awe now. It clearly showed that Octavia must had told stories about Dumbledore to the boy.

"Please to meet you, Mr. Flamel."

"Nice to meet you too, Headmaster." Cato shook Albus hand with much enthusiasm.

"Mom told me stories about you and what you have done for us. Thank you for that."

"You're most welcome, Mr. Flamel. I must ask you a question."

Octavia eyes widen as she knew that Dumbledore will be asking Cato about moving back to their homeland and to have the opportunity to attend Hogwarts.

"What's that?"

"I have offer your mother to come back to Hogwarts to do the same teaching she is doing here. What do you think? You can also attend too since you suppose to receive a letter if you still lived back home."

The sight of Cato's eyes widen and his mouth drop open made Octavia knew that Cato will beg her to go to Hogwarts. For all the stories she would tell Cato about what Hogwarts was like, Cato always wanted to see the old school that his parents attended.

"Mom, can we?"

Shutting her eyes, a sigh escaped Octavia as she knew that Dumbledore put her in this position on purpose. She will do anything to make Cato happy and comfortable. She shot a glare at the older wizard, who shrugged his shoulders as if he did not do any harm, but there was mischief in his eyes.

"Go to class before you're late."

"But mom—"

"Cato."

"Fine. See you later, Headmaster." Cato said then jogged off when he saw some of his housemates that were heading to potions class.

The two adults watched as Cato disappeared back into the building.

"You did that on purpose."

"Octavia, it would be wonderful if you accept the offer."

Staying silent, Octavia turned away from Dumbledore to stare out at the vast forest that surrounded the castle school.

The thought of going back home sounded wonderful. Then to be able to do the same type of classroom teaching that she did here and bring it to Hogwarts will be even better. Octavia felt that Dumbledore not only wanted her back for teaching, but what he had said about the evidence of the Dark Lord on the rise again. She could be a great help on being a combat healer on the battlefield.

There was a particular reason why she was also hesitant to accept.

"You do know that you're playing with fire on not telling him that I will be there."

"He'll understand. Wait, you agree to come?" Dumbledore said quickly as her comment mostly stated that she accepted the invitation to come back home and be a professor at Hogwarts.

A nod of her head and Octavia found herself pulled into Dumbledore's arms into a bear hug. She laughed as she hugged him back and she gave him a small pat on his back.

"I am so happy you agreed, Octavia."

"I'm happy to be able to return home."

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 **Hi Everyone,**

 **So for a while (which I mean for YEARS) I had been debating about this idea. At times, I had wrote out stories to post, but would delete it because I felt it wasn't good enough. This time I had gather up the courage to try out this storyline and not going to hesitate this time.**

 **I just don't want to mess it up.**

 **I am going to apologize if any sort of information is wrong and whatnot. Brushing up my knowledge and such.**

 **I can understand it's weird to see who the main characters are related to, so it's one of those 'what ifs' type of scenarios. Yet it's relevant.**

 **Disclaimer for this chapter and the future chapters** **: I do not own anything about the** _ **Harry Potter Series**_ **. That is all owned by J.K Rowling and her wonderful mind.**

 **However, I do own my original characters, Octavia and her son, Cato.**

 **So, here we go.**

 **Hopefully, it's good…  
(Literally, cringing as I want it to be an alright story).**

 **Enjoy.**

 **Thank You!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter:** **Returning & Sorting**

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"Wow."

"Yeah, that was the first word that slipped from my mouth when I first set eyes on Hogwarts as a first year." Octavia stood before the gates of Hogwarts with an awestruck Cato beside her.

The sight of Hogwarts always made first comers to stand there with an awestruck look. A large castle that overlooked the Forbidden Forest and the Black Lake. Half of the castle itself seemed to be built out of the mountain it rested against.

"Octavia Flamel, is that you?"

Glancing to her right, Octavia caught sight of a very familiar gamekeeper of Hogwarts. A half-giant with the kindest heart and he tried very hard to make everyone feel welcome.

"Hagrid!"

"Come here you." Hagrid laughed.

Octavia dropped her luggage as Hagrid pulled her into a hug, lifted her right off the ground.

Cato mouth dropped at the size of the man known as Hagrid. He had to be close to seven feet, large round tummy and broad shoulders. Shoulder length hair and a beard that stuck out against the man face. When he set Octavia down to look over at Cato, Cato saw nothing but kindness in the half-giant eyes.

"Is this who I think it is?"

"Yes, it is. This is my son Cato. He will be transferring into his third year here. Cato this is a good friend of mine and the gamekeeper, Rubeus Hagrid." Octavia smiled when Cato walked up to Hagrid and held his hand out.

Ignoring the handshake, Hagrid pulled Cato into a hug and lifted him off his feet. Cato couldn't help but laugh. Hagrid gave a few strong pats on Cato's shoulders and smiled down at the young teenager once Cato was set back on the ground.

"Oh, how yeh have yer ma's eyes." Hagrid grinned down, giving a last pat on Cato shoulders before he turned to Octavia with his thumbs tucked into his thick leather belt.

"Well, let us get yeh two up there ter the headmasta'." Hagrid waved for them to enter through the gates.

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… **.. The Staff Room: …..**

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"You haven't told him, Albus!? Because it will not be a pleasant surprise. This is going to make him angrier than he already is."

"Please, Minerva. He won't stay mad at me for long."

"Oh, well that is comforting."

Dumbledore stared at his Deputy Headmistress, Head of Gryffindor and the Transfiguration professor, Minerva McGonagall. He had told her the news of the return of Octavia Flamel to Hogwarts as a new professor for a new developing class. Of course, Minerva got excited at the fact that one of her successful students from Gryffindor will be coming back. But when Minerva asked if a certain dudgeon bat knew about it, Albus simply said no. Albus added more fuel to the fire when he told Minerva that Octavia's son will also be attending Hogwarts as a transfer student.

Both Dumbledore and Minerva stood in the staff room already. A few more professor soon came into the room to witness the transfer student be sorted into one of the four school houses. The professors that came in were the ones that were the head of their houses.

The head of Hufflepuff, Professor Pomona Sprout, who taught herbology. The head of Gryffindor, Minerva McGonagall, who taught Transfiguration. The head of Ravenclaw, Professor Filius Flitwick, who taught Charms. Then last, but not least, the head of Slytherin house, who taught potions, Professor Severus Snape.

While professor talked amongst themselves, Minerva stared at Severus dressed in his usual all black attire. From the black dragon hide boots to the black frock coat he wore. The color did not help out with bringing out any of his features. Having black hair, close to having black eyes, and pale skin, the black attire didn't help one bit. He had his usual brooding expression on as if he didn't want to be in a social atmosphere.

The knock on the door caused everyone to quiet down. The door opened enough to allow Hagrid to poke his head in.

"I got 'em." Hagrid said.

"Come in, Hagrid." Albus smiled.

Minerva felt herself tense up when Hagrid stepped in then stepped aside to allow the two newcomers to enter. Minerva let her eyes flickered around the room, but landed on the man dressed in all black, to watch his reaction.

When the other professors recognized the woman with her son, they quickly went up to her to greet her with hugs and smiles. Minerva glanced at Albus to see that he did not pay any attention to the potion professor, but Minerva sure did.

Severus had gone wide eyes, but he recollected himself to glare at the back of Albus. It was pretty obvious to Minerva that Severus was very angry that Albus didn't tell him.

Shaking her head, Minerva put on a smile as she was excited to see that Octavia returned, but Minerva couldn't help but awe over Octavia son. The boy shook hands with the others, rubbed the back of his head with his free hand as he let a nervous laugh escaped from him upon all the attention he received.

Minerva stared at the boy then she glanced at the angry man that sat in the chair with a death glare aimed at Albus. Minerva stared at the resemblance between the angry man and the teenage boy. But when it came to personality, the boy definitely took after his mother's personality, which was a very good thing to Minerva.

"Oh my dear, it is so good to see you again." Minerva moved forward with her arms spread out to welcome Octavia into her arms.

The two hugged before Minerva pulled back first to rest her hands on Octavia's shoulders to look Octavia over. Minerva saw that her former student had grown into an attractive woman. Minerva saw that Octavia was not the same teenager that once had the shoulder length hair, slightly chubby cheeks and some acne around on her chin. Now as an adult, Octavia was slender. She thinned out and her body molded into a woman with some curves. Her hair was longer and brushed past the middle of her back. Her clear skin was a light olive color tone.

"My, I have to say as you grow older, you turned more beautiful."

"Please, oh no. That is not true." Octavia shook her head with a kind smile.

"And this, is this who I think it is?" Minerva nodded to Cato.

"Yes, this is Cato. Cato meet the head of Gryffindor, who also teaches Transfiguration, Professor Minerva McGonagall. Someone who I looked up to as a student here."

"You're too kind. Please to meet you, Mr. Flamel." Minerva held out her hand.

"Nice to meet you, Professor." Cato grinned as he shook Minerva's hand.

Minerva definitely knew that the boy took after his mother with personality and not the brooding man that still sat in an armchair, who watched the whole scene with dark eyes.

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The sight of everyone again brought joy through Octavia. To see her old teachers, but also, introduced them to Cato, she felt this sense of accomplishment, especially how everyone took a liking to Cato due to his kind nature.

The one that Octavia didn't want to face yet sat in an armchair and was glaring at the back of Albus Dumbledore's head.

"You didn't tell him?" Octavia stepped over to Albus to whisper to him.

"No, I did not."

"Great." Octavia muttered.

Clapping his hands together, Albus drew the attention of everyone. Minerva stepped up to a table where a battered, worn down brown leather hat sat. An armchair was beside the table that the hat sat on.

"Now, we are going to sort young Mr. Cato Flamel into a house and we will announce his transfer during the feast. Now, Mr. Flamel may you take a seat." Albus motioned one of his hands over to armchair that Minerva stood by.

Cato moved over to the seat and sat himself down. Minerva stepped up beside him with the patched worn down brown hat. It began to move and came to life, which made Cato to awe over that. He knew a good amount about Hogwarts because of his mother told him stories. The Sorting hat stories that his mother told him were interesting. He remembered how his mother told him how that the hat took about two minutes to decide which house she belonged in.

The hat was set onto Cato head. Cato eyes looked upwards as the hat moved around on his head.

Octavia crossed her arms over her chest as she stood in between Albus and Minerva, who watched with everyone else.

All the professors stood around, even Severus got up from his seat to watch as the Sorting Hat moved around on top of Cato's head.

The seconds turned into minutes, which caused the professor to look at each other. Albus glanced at the clock on the wall to see that four minutes went by.

"Is this going to be a hat-stall?" Filius whispered with an adjustment of his glasses as he leaned forward with an intrigued look as the hat was taking longer than usual.

"Gryffindor!" The hat shouted.

Minerva moved forward with a proud smile on her lips as she took the hat off of Cato's head. He stood up and reached up to pat his hair down. He stood up and moved to stand before Octavia, who gave him a small grin, happy that he got into her former house.

"You almost had a hat-stall there, Cato." Octavia told him.

"Yeah, well the hat kept going back and forth between Gryffindor and Slytherin for me. Until I thought about you and all that you have done for us. That was when it decided to put me in Gryffindor." Cato told her with a shrug of his shoulders.

"Tonight will be the feast. Cato, you will joining the Gryffindor table, but first let's change this." Albus flicked his wand at Cato.

Cato's Hogwarts outfit changed from a plain tie and the Hogwarts crest patch on the sweater to the Gryffindor colors of red and gold.

"That is neat." Cato mumbled as he fixed his tie, looking at Albus with a nod of thanks.

"As for you, Octavia, since I have a good number of you here, especially core classes and head of your houses, I want inform all of you that Ms. Octavia Flamel had agreed to teach here. She had created new classes for those that are aiming to enter the Healers' field. Therefore, the students that had confronted in your advisory meeting, about joining to become Healers or Mediwitch and Mediwizards, Octavia classes revolve around the fields to the career that those students might wish to take part in. They can drop one of the original electives they had already selected in order to take Octavia's class."

"I assume Ms. Flamel's classes will only be offered to those that got an O or E on their O.W.L.s exams." Severus drawled out with a glance at Octavia then his eyes back on Albus.

"Yes, that is right. No less grade shall be able to enter the class. Only sixth and seventh years can take her classes." Albus nodded as he stared at Octavia then he looked at anyone who might have something to say.

With no more comments, everyone went about to their own business. Everyone had to get ready for tonight.

Octavia rested her hand on Cato's left shoulder, staying close by him. She ignored the dark eyes that eyed the two.

"I'll take you to your room, dear then I'll show Cato to the Gryffindor tower where the other students will be arriving soon enough." Minerva said, leading the two away with knowledge of Severus watching.

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With only Severus and Albus alone in the staff room, Severus rounded on Albus, speaking out before the old man could utter a word.

"Why didn't you tell me that she will be a professor here?"

"Why Severus, I thought you wouldn't care if it wasn't a topic revolving around the DADA position?"

"Don't bring that up. But when my ex-fiancée and our son come walking in without me knowing, that's cold for even you, old man." Severus hissed through clenched teeth.

"She is a great asset to have to the staff."

"For you! You are going to use her just like you used me."

"Severus, my boy, please lower your voice. And is that concern I hear in your voice for her once again?"

Severus swallowed hard, his body tense and fist flexing on his sides, clearly showing he held himself back from saying anymore. No other reply, Severus took his leave.

Albus stood by the window in the staffroom and stared out it, a small grin on his lips.

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A flick of the wrist and a few empty vials shattered against the stone floors of Severus's office. A wave of the hand, the shattered glass gathered back together and returned to their original spots on a shelf.

Severus dropped himself in the large black leather seat behind his desk and shut his eyes.

There were moments that Severus wanted to wring Dumbledore neck for actions that bugged Severus. He was already angry about the rejection from the Defense against the Dark Arts position. He was especially angry that it went to Gilderoy Lockhart. Severus knew that Lockhart was some famous author who acted as if he knew everything and always told stories about how great he was. Severus knew that whenever Lockhart talked, it was lies. The man was very conceited in himself. Severus had urges to hex Lockhart straight into the Black Lake.

Then the recent moment of wanting to wring Dumbledore's neck came in today. The appearance of Octavia and Cato felt like a cruel joke being played on Severus.

The arrival of Octavia brought thoughts to play in Severus head. She was his first in everything. The first one to stick by his side when he messed up his friendship with Lily Evans. The one to have the best patience with him. The one that became his girlfriend than later became his fiancée. Though that happened due to him hearing the news that Lily was getting marry. Octavia Flamel was also the one that he let go when he admitted to her in a verbal fight that he found Lily more important. That was the day that Severus discovered that Octavia was pregnant.

Severus dropped his forehead on his desk with a groan in frustration escaping from him. He remembered how much of an ass he was to Octavia that particular day.

He could still remember as clear as day when he stood back and watched Octavia leave. The bags packed on her sides and a simple comment that she will survive on her own and then she left. After that, Severus remembered bumping into Lucius Malfoy who informed Severus of how much of an idiot he was for letting a woman like Octavia get away and not go after her. Octavia was something that dealt and loved Severus unconditionally.

What really struck Severus to the core was Cato.

Severus saw an image of Cato by his archenemy, Sirius Black. Black had sent Severus a howler one afternoon to inform Severus how much of an asshole he was to let Octavia go and not come fight for her.

Long fingers curling around the bronze handle of one of the desk draws, Severus pulled it open to reach inside and pulled out a black wooden box.

The black wooden box had two snakes entwined together on the cover. A gentle push of the cover and it flipped open. Inside laid old trinkets, wrinkly wore down papers, and a small stack of photos.

Severus pushed few of the items aside to pull out what he was looking for.

A moving photo with dull edges, showing the amount of times that he stared at this particular photo.

The photo showed an exhausted Octavia in St. Mungo's. Her photo self looked up at the person that took the photo before she looked back down, smiling at the newborn Cato all bundled up in a blue blanket with a matching blue hat. One of his tiny fist raised up in the air and waved around.

A couple seconds passed before Severus set the photo down on his desk. He watched the moving photo reenact over and over again.

"I need a drink." Severus mumbled as he stood up from his seat to move over to a cabinet where he kept a bottle of Firewhiskey for occasions such as theses.

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 **Hi Everyone,**

 **Sorry if anything was wrong with information and such.**

 **Anyway, getting this story started and if anyone was wondering, Cato will be put third year and Harry will be entering his second year.**

 **Also, apology if there is no such thing as transferring into Hogwarts, but I'm just thinking if Octavia goes then obviously Cato will be going too.**

 **And also, another apology about Hagrid's accent.**

 **Thanks and Enjoy!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter:** **A New Start**

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The Great Hall was always a sight. The sun had gone down and nighttime took over. The candles that floated above the four long tables. The ceiling being charmed to show the night sky. Older students were already seated at their house tables, chatting and catching up with their friends, waiting for the ceremony to start.

Octavia loved the sight of the Great Hall as a student, especially during the holidays. Other than the Great Hall, she loved sitting by the Black Lake during a sunrise or sunset.

Octavia walked up to the staff table, sitting beside an empty seat that must've been Minerva's seat. With her leading the first years in the Great Hall to be sorted, Octavia stayed quiet, even if Severus sat on her other side.

Unlike the other professors that talked amongst themselves, Octavia and Severus sat in an awkward silence.

Octavia was scanning the Gryffindor table until they came to a pause on Cato. She saw him smiling and laughing at something two identical redheads said to him from across the table. By the redheads, Octavia knew immediately that those two were the Weasley twins, Fred and George.

The creak of the Great Hall doors was a switch that made everyone to quiet down. The doors opened up with Minerva leading two long rows of first years.

A grin came onto Octavia's lips as she could remember her time as a first year, walking through the Great Hall and took everything in awe. The awestruck feeling of the beauty of magic.

Older students watched the first years walk in. Some students were pointing out either a relative of theirs or maybe someone they knew.

The clattered of feet came to a halt. The first years stood in the middle aisle waiting as Minerva did her usual routine of walking up to the stool and stood beside it just as the worn down Sorting Hat began to sing its song.

The song from the Sorting Hat was never the same. It was new every year. Octavia sat in her seat, listening to the new song by the sorting hat. She had to admit that it was pretty impressive that the Sorting Hat came up with a new song every year, especially with how old the hat was.

When the song came to an end, the sorting into one of the four houses began.

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Octavia clapped for a couple of seconds as another student got sent into Gryffindor. When the student went to their seat, Octavia placed her hands back onto her lap. She had a smile on her lips at the excitement that went through one of the four houses when they got a new member.

The last student had been placed in Ravenclaw. All finished, Minerva rolled up the parchment and held it in both hands. Her eyes went to Dumbledore with a small nod of her head.

Dumbledore stood up from his seat, drawing attention to him. His eyes looked over the crowd of students before he started his usual welcoming speech to first years and a beginning of a new year and what was to be expected.

The introduction of the new staff entered halfway through Dumbledore's speech. It made Octavia to perk up in her seat.

"With many students aiming to enter in the Mediwizards and Healers career after Hogwarts, I am pleased to announce that we have a new professor to help out with that. Professor Octavia Flamel will be teaching classes that are relevant to the healers' field. Only sixth and seventh years are allowed to take her class. When getting your schedules tomorrow, you may go to the head of your house to take out one of you elective courses to see if you are eligible to take her class. Once again, Octavia Flamel." Dumbledore waved his right hand in the direction of Octavia.

A simple wave and a polite smile from Octavia as the student body clapped. There were a few wolf whistles that had Octavia to shake her head with amusement clear in her eyes.

After the speech, Dumbledore clapped his hands together and spread it out toward the four house tables. Loads of food appeared across the tables and the sound of 'whoa' echoed through the hall from the awestruck first years.

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"Octavia Flamel!"

"Hermione, why are freaking out about that?" Ginny whispered.

Ginny stared at Hermione, the intelligent girl that was her brother Ron and Harry's best friend. But Ginny did take a look around as she noted that Ron nor Harry were around. The two hadn't been in their usual train compartment either.

"Octavia Flamel is not only the granddaughter of Nicolas Flamel, but she helped to create the idea to have prep classes for those that want to become healers. She found that students should have experience when they want to enter into the medical field instead of students being tossed into the field and having to relearn new subjects after they graduate from their school." Hermione explained in her usual rapid pace, taking her eyes off of Ginny to stare at the stage where Octavia Flamel sat beside Professor Snape.

"So, she's mostly making it easier for students to fit in when they further their education?" Neville said in a questionable tone, looking away from the new professor who attracted the boys' population to look at the excited Hermione.

"Exactly, Neville."

"She's also his mom." George whispered over to them.

Hermione, Ginny and Neville looked around a first year to stare at the boy that sat across from George and Fred. The three could see the resemblance between the new professor and the boy.

"I'm Cato. I transferred here, if you want to say that." Cato said, holding his hand out to Hermione, Neville and then Ginny.

"What school did you go to before Hogwarts?" Neville asked.

Those that sat around the group were now listening in, curious to what the new kid had to say, especially when his mother was a professor and they carried an infamous last name.

"Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry."

"Oh, the American wizarding school." Hermione whispered, as she remembered reading a book about the school that had a good reputation.

"Yeah, it has the same concept of four houses and some rivalry between them. Though I have to admit, not as intense as here."

"Really now?" Neville eyebrow rose as he found interest in learning about another wizarding school.

"Well, isn't Ilvermorny not as, how do I put this, selective in blood status. Or rather, students don't think they are superior to others because of their blood status." Hermione said, shooting a look over her right shoulder towards the Slytherin table that was a house that contained mostly pureblood, but her main focus was on Draco Malfoy.

"Yes, it's diverse when it comes to the blood status. The houses are mixed up when it came to the blood status too. We really had no problems with blood status. Whether, you're pureblood, half-blood, or a student that came from non-magical parents, we don't really look at you in that manner. Though we are strict when it came with no-majs. There is the rule about not being able to mix with magical beings and no-majs." Cato explained.

Cato held back a surprise expression during the conversation with Hermione. He could tell that she was a bright girl by simply listening to her talk and how she got a twinkle in her eyes as she talked.

"No-majs?"

"Muggles. Muggles cannot mix with a witch or wizard. We became very cautious about that due to past history." Cato explained.

The rest of the time during dinner, the whole Great Hall was lively. Cato came to believe thus far that it wouldn't be so bad here.

Cato eyes had gone up to the staff table to see his mother having a conversation with Minerva. His eyes traveled to the other side of his mother to stare at the emotionless potion master of the school. The potion master dressed in all black, tense in his spot.

Even with him thinking that way, Cato wonder how his mother will be with the potion master, Severus Snape so close again. To Cato, it was obvious how awkward it was for the two adults. But Cato knew it will definitely be awkward with him around too, being their son and all.

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The feast soon came to an end with Dumbledore's usual warnings and restrictions on the ground of Hogwarts. The prefects in each house rounded up the student body of their houses to lead the group to their common rooms for the rest of the night.

At the staff table, Octavia stood up with Minerva. Throughout dinner, Octavia was glad that Minerva sat on the other side of her because the air was tense between Severus and her. Minerva and Octavia caught up with the years of not being able to communicate with one another. Through that conversation, Octavia could feel the way that Severus adjusted himself in his seat whenever she spoke. But halfway through dinner, Octavia watched Severus get up and leave when Flinch came slyly up behind Severus chair to whisper something to him.

With the students leaving the Great Hall, the staff began their own journey back to their rooms, mumbling along the way about preparing themselves for the first day of classes tomorrow.

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That whole time during dinner it felt as if a blazing fire was lit beside him.

Every time that Octavia laughed at something Minerva said or whenever she whispered whatever to Minerva, he felt his body tense up even more than it had been during dinner.

What was very uncomfortable to him was the fact that Octavia never took one glance at him.

In all honesty, Severus wouldn't know what to say to her. Everyone knew, even him, that he was not one for apologies from the heart. The day that he apologized with sincerity, people will think hell froze over. With no words to her throughout dinner, Severus became a spectator.

When Flinch came up to him halfway during dinner, Severus was relieved. Other times, Severus would had been annoyed by Flinch or anyone for that matter for disturbing him during a meal. But when Flinch informed Severus of the missing Mr. Potter and Mr. Weasley, sneaking into the school, Severus left immediately to confront and deal with the two. Though his threatening words to the two did not go far, especially when Dumbledore and Minerva showed up to take over the punishment for the two boys.

With nothing left to do, Severus had left his office to walk amongst the hallways. He came upon the prefects leading students to their representative common rooms. Continue his walking, his cloak billowing behind him, he found himself slowing up his long, walking stride at the sight of Gryffindor students.

At a good distance, not drawing attention, Severus watched the Gryffindor students going down the hallway and heading toward the staircase. No other students paid him any mind due to their fear of him.

Familiar wavy chocolate brown hair bouncing against the woman's back caused Severus to take a step back in the shadow of a statue in the hallway. His eyes stayed on Octavia as she swiftly walked with long strides.

The words that Minerva said back in the staff room bounced around in his head, about how attractive Octavia became as she got older, which was true. Then she always had this calming air around her. To see Octavia again after a good amount of years, Severus agreed with Minerva. Age made Octavia attractive. A soft, pretty look to her, but Severus knew firsthand how venomous that calm, soft and pretty woman could become when angry or upset.

Severus stood there as Octavia walked on by. A low growl underneath his breath as he remembered the reason, or rather, a particular person, for Octavia's sudden appearance. Severus should've confronted Dumbledore more about this decision, but Severus knew it will do no good.

Not wanting to face Octavia anymore today, Severus went to turn on the heel of his boots to make his journey back to the dungeons when he caught sight of one budding teenager amongst the Gryffindor class.

The boy had his mother's eyes with some of Severus's facial structure, but not his nose, which Severus was thankful for. The third year boy laughed at something that one of the Weasley twins said. Severus stood there, halfway turned to leave the hallway with his fist flexing on his sides.

The particular boy was tall for his age. The sight of him, of Cato should've made Severus feel a sense of accomplishment for the creation of a flawless child, but Octavia appeared in Severus mind. The past with Octavia and how Severus rejected her, said those harsh comments to her while she had been pregnant, which he found out about in the same cruel conversation that day.

A shake of the head as if it shook the past memories out of his head. Severus let out a low huff escape from his mouth as he knew the past will one day come bite him in the ass.

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 **Hi Everyone,**

 **Here was another chapter.**

 **Enjoy. Review.**

 **Thank You!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter:** Start of Classes

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He knew who his father was.

The first day of having potions, there were many negative comments that swirled around about Professor Severus Snape. Cato listened to all the comments and wonder why Snape acted in cruel, harsh manners.

Potion classes took place in the dungeons. The atmosphere was gloomy with only torches to light up the corridors. The air moist that it clung to their skins. A shiver ran through a couple of students as the temperature was board line freezing. The students stood in the corridors, waiting for the classroom door to open. Cato stood in the middle of everyone, thinking how the dungeon atmosphere fitted the potions professor. Whenever someone brought up the potion professor, Cato could hear the fear that laced their tones and the dislike.

A shiver went through Cato's body at the temperature. He felt the need to hover his hands over the torch flames to get some sort of warmth back in his body. He looked around the morbid, dark dungeons. It fitted the Slytherin house. Snakes do burrow in dark, cool places.

When the classroom door slammed open and in the doorway dressed in all black with an imposing posture that loomed over the wide eyes students stood Severus Snape. His dark eyes casted over each of their faces as if analyzing who would step out of line in his presence. A simple, sharp motion with his head gave the students the signal to enter. Not a word escaped anyone as they rushed into the classroom to a seat.

Cato stood in the middle of the classroom. He took in the sight of the tables where two stools were placed under. By everyone already gathering seats with somebody they knew, Cato felt a tick of annoyance for being the new kid.

He tried not to show his annoyance as he moved to the front of the classroom where there was a seat open beside a Slytherin boy. He was tall like Cato for his age, messy long past the shoulder length dark brown hair and pale skin as if he never stepped out in the sunlight that much. The way that he sat told Cato that he was reserved to himself, especially as he kept his head bowed the whole time.

"Do you mind if I sit here?"

The Slytherin boy looked up where Cato saw he had silver eyes. A small shake of the head had Cato grin. He set his messenger bag down underneath the table and sat himself down in the stool. He noticed immediately when he looked around the class that there were a few students staring at Cato and the Slytherin boy, whispering underneath their breaths. The action had Cato eyebrows to furrow together for a brief second.

"They are not talking about you. They are talking about how you sat down next to the kid that no Slytherin hangs out with because I do not like the Slytherin ways."

"Huh, really? Well, then, I am Cato Flamel." Cato held his hand out to the Slytherin boy with a grin.

The Slytherin boy stared at Cato's outstretched hand for a couple of seconds before he reached out, shaking his hand.

"Isaac Silver."

"Are you two quite finish with your introductions?"

Isaac went tense in his spot. Cato looked to the front of the classroom where Severus stood tall. His dark eyes went back and forth between Isaac and Cato before he turned his attention to address the class.

The whole time in class, every movement made by Severus was sharp and emphasized. The black cloak billowing behind him, the pause in his sentences, the way he turned his head to stare sharply at somebody with those dark eyes.

A flick of the wand toward the blackboard and writing appeared. The writing was in sharp cursive, but legible to read. The writing was a long list of ingredients.

The sound of quills scratching across the notebooks were in different paces. There were some students that tried to write every ingredient down and then there were others that continue to stare at Snape who began to pace back and forth in a slow manner before the class.

His pacing did not stop even as he explained what each ingredient was and what it did.

Snape turned quickly toward the class as he finished explaining each ingredient in the simplest form. Cato sworn he heard a few students take a sharp inhale when Snape had turned so sharply toward them.

"Mr. Trace, do tell me what the potion is that contains all these ingredients and when was it used?" Severus stared at the Gryffindor boy that open and close his mouth, nothing coming out.

"No? Pity. Ms. Ro?" Severus made a tsk sound then his question was shot to the Gryffindor girl that sat beside the Gryffindor boy that could not answer the question.

"No? Does anyone know?" Severus eyed each of them until one brave soul raised their hand.

"Um, a snuffling potion?"

"No, Mr. Cast, it is not a snuffling potion." Snape sneered, clearly not happy that one of his own house students, a Slytherin, got the wrong answer.

Cato eyes stayed on the blackboard where the ingredients were. With having a mother such as his, he grew up around this sort of field. He even helped her out with a few potions. She told him once that he had a knack for potions and that he taken after his father.

As Cato glanced at Snape, he saw the dark eyes glance at him and stayed on Cato for a few moments. He got a funny feeling that Snape was waiting to see if Cato knew. As if, Snape was waiting for Cato to prove himself that he was in fact his son.

Cato slowly, but surely, raised his hand up.

"Mr. Flamel, you wish to try?"

"It is the Shrinking Solution, Professor."

"Who invented the solution?" Snape asked immediately, eyes narrowing in a challenging manner.

"It was Zygmunt Budge. Though in history it was used by another known as Samuel Plunkett."

"Well, well, well, why is it that the transfer knows more than any of you and you have been here for two years already and should've read about this potion during the summer. Then again, having a mother like a Flamel does have its advantage." Snape explained, eyeing the class before his eyes rested back on Cato.

The mocking comment had Cato bite his tongue. He remembered how students talked about Snape who will not admit that you are right. Sometimes Snape will go to the point of proving that you are wrong by testing you more. He will not give any compliments to any other houses expect his own.

Before he knew what he doing, not caring if he got points knocked off or a detention, Cato open his mouth, drawing Snape attention.

"You have more to say?"

"Yeah, my mother may be a Flamel, but she told me that I had taken after my father in my potion skills."

The second he ended that comment, Cato saw how tense Snape became. Snape eyes widen before he collected himself. Snape stared down at Cato for a couple of seconds and Cato knew that he caught Snape off guard. It couldn't be helped that a smug smirk came onto Cato's lips as he managed to, technically, shut Snape up.

Snape put a sneer on his face. He looked away and stepped over to the blackboard to continue explaining the Shrinking Solution.

A small bump in the side and Cato looked at Isaac who stared at him with wide eyes for the backtalk to Snape.

Cato shrugged his shoulders as he pretended he didn't know. He turned his attention to the blackboard and paid attention to Snape.

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A minute before the bell ranged for the start of class, Octavia opened her classroom door. A smile on her lips as she let in her new sixth year students. She was shocked that there were only ten in total. There were five Ravenclaw, two Gryffindor, two Slytherin and one Hufflepuff.

Octavia's classroom was located in one of the towers that overlooked the Black Lake. The classroom was in a lower section of the tower, about three floors up from the main level of the castle. It was a view from the tower that overlooked the Black Lake. The classroom itself was bright due to the sun rising in the direction the classroom windows faced. The sunlight gave a soft golden glow. The walls were light stone. The classroom tables are made out of dark wood, polished until glossy and bouncing off the sunlight. Across the walls were posters of the body, potion ingredients, healing potion and spells, poisons, certain illness and so forth. A couple of cabinets were in the back of the classroom where the ingredients, cauldrons, phials and books were stored. Then a couple spots in the room, there were plants to give the classroom an even more calming, warm effect. Octavia found the classroom pleasant and lighthearted.

The students stared around their new surroundings, but soon their attention became attracted by Octavia's Thunderbird, Felix. The Thunderbird stretched out his wings and then he gave a soft trill from his perch. With new faces in the classroom, he sat up a bit higher on his legs and seem to bobble his head as he took everyone in.

"Please take a seat with another and don't partner up with someone in your own house. So mix it up please. For when you become a healer, a mediwizard or mediwitch, or a matron, you will see your patients as patients. What I mean by that is that you will not be discriminatory toward your patient because of their status or identity. Everyone is equal. If you have a problem with that or show problems throughout my classes, I will dismiss you for the day and you will miss what we learned that day. Trust me, you don't want to fall behind when it comes to this career." Octavia explained as the students took their seats.

"Now." Octavia clapped her hands and papers flew off her desk to be slide in front of each student.

"In front of you is what we will be looking forward to this year. As sixth years, you might feel as if you are relearning some of the potions, transfiguration, herbology, charms and DADA subject. Sort of a reviews of things. However, we will be advancing and honing down your skills. We will be working together to make yourself think quicker, figure out solutions, observation skills, and working under pressure. This will come handy as we learn about treating mental and physical conditions, illness and diseases and injuries." Octavia continued to explain as she stood in front of the class.

She could see clear excitement in most of their eyes at the opportunity to learn more about the medical field that they wished to pursue. A Ravenclaw raised their hand in the air. Octavia gave a nod of the head for them to speak.

"I understand that we will be learning all about treating a patient, but will we have the opportunity to actually treat."

"It's fifty-fifty. It's mostly seventh years that will be working with a mannequin that I could charm to act as if it has certain illness or injury." Octavia answered, nodding her head toward a part of her classroom.

The students glanced over to one side of the classroom to see a few mannequins were locked inside a tall cabinet with glass doors. There were various marks on the mannequins, mapping out parts of the body. In the past, many, many years ago, cadavers were usually used, but that was centuries ago.

"For now, we will be learning the basics. Therefore, for today we will be starting on the topic of healing magic, understanding and learning the various spells." Octavia said, a smile came onto her lips once she caught how thrilled her students were of learning.

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"Be sure to write eleven inch essay about what healing spells that you would use to deal with a splinching and why. If you find yourself writing more than do so, but try not to ramble nonsense." Octavia said while her students packed up.

A couple minutes later, the students left. Octavia did not have her seventh years the period before lunchtime.

She shuffle papers on her desk that were her lesson plans. She set them neatly on the upper left corner of her desk to easily see when she walked in front of the student's desk. It was not a bad first class and Octavia was happy to see how eager her student were about learning. She knew that subjects were interesting when one was interested in that subject. Her classes were to help her students pursue their future careers.

"Mom."

Octavia looked away from her desk and she saw Cato halfway in her classroom. His messenger bag swayed on his right shoulder, a book tucked underneath his left arm, and he had a look as if he ate something bitter.

"What's up?"

"Was he always so snarky?"

Arms crossed over her chest, a sigh escaped her. She knew that Cato will sooner or late question his father's actions and ways. There was no doubt in her mind that Cato heard the stories about Snape. By his expression, it was clear that Cato got a taste of how Snape was first handed.

"If you mean, did he always have a dry and sarcastic manner then yes." Octavia said.

"He tested me in class about my knowledge, but I, um, shut him up after a comment I made."

"Oh?" Octavia eyebrow rose in curiosity.

She stood in front of Cato, waiting for him to explain himself more.

"I mentioned how my skills in potions was due to taking after my father in potions."

"And this is why I told you that you take after your father with biting comments."

"And you! You have your moments." Cato said. He did not want her to think that she doesn't have her moments of biting comments.

"Okay, okay. Did he take points off you or give you detention?"

"Nothing. He did stop calling on me afterwards." Cato told her, with a shrug of his shoulders.

"Watch it, Cato. It might come back and bite you in the ass."

"I know, mom, I know. Well, I need to get to Transfiguration."

"Have fun." She grinned. She knew that Cato wasn't a big fan of Transfiguration even though he wasn't that bad at it.

Cato gave her a small wave and then he left the classroom.

Octavia walked up to Felix, petting the Thunderbird on the head. A smile came onto her lips as Felix let out a low thrill sound that was close to a purr. She pulled her hand away to walk over to her desk and sat down behind it. She began to reread the seventh year lesson plan even though she already done so many times the night before.

A knock on the door made Octavia to glance up.

"Headmaster." Octavia stood up from her seat at the sight of Dumbledore.

"Please sit. I was on a casual walk around the castle and decided to check up on you." Dumbledore said, making his way into her classroom and he came to stand before Felix.

"Oh, well thanks for the thought. So far, the sixth years seem very excited about focusing mainly on what they want to pursue for a career." Octavia said happily.

"That is wonderful to hear, my dear. I am happy that you are showing such excitement too." Dumbledore chuckled, his hands clasped behind his back.

Octavia glanced at the lesson plan then back up at Dumbledore. She saw Dumbledore eyeing Felix who was studying Dumbledore with tilts of his head.

"You can pet him. If he sensed that you were dangerous, he would've electrocuted you by now." Octavia said innocently.

She smirked when Dumbledore shot her a look over his half-moon glasses. She watched him turn back to the Thunderbird. Felix bowed his head as Dumbledore began to pet Felix head gently.

"Amazing how the Thunderbird and Phoenix are relatives. They do seem alike, but different appearances and abilities." Dumbledore smiled when Felix shut his eyes, a soft thrilled escaped him.

"Yes, it is amazing." Octavia smiled.

"I saw Cato through the hallway. He appeared to be enjoying his first day."

"Yes, he is happy about being here." Octavia nodded.

"Well, I will leave you to prepare for your seventh years. Good day." Dumbledore nodded to her and then he swept out of her classroom.

Octavia looked over at Felix who stared back at her with his gold intelligent eyes. He jumped off his perch to land on top of her desk. He walked across the desk, his large talons clicking against the wood surface and he came to a stop in front of a glass jar. He began to peck at the top of the jar cover, wanting what was inside. At the moment, inside the glass jar were peppermint toads.

"I still can't believe that Cato managed to get you to like some sweets. You're one strange Thunderbird." Octavia mumbled.

Opening up the jar, she plucked out two peppermint toads and dropped them on the desk. Felix hopped toward them, gobble them right up and gave off a happy squawk.

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 **Hi Everyone,**

 **Here was another chapter.**

 **I hope you're enjoying the story thus far.**

 **Please review, follow, favorite!**

 **Thank You!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter:** Being Dismissed

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… **.. Couple Weeks Later: …..**

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Classes thus far were running smoothly. The students worked hard to accomplish the task at hand to further gain knowledge of the career they wished to pursue. A few students came up to Octavia and told her that they were glad she went over many topics from their core classes and applied it to a medical situation.

The couple weeks that passed, Octavia was glad to see that Cato made friends. He even became best friends with a Slytherin boy from his potions class by the name of Isaac Silver. Plus, Cato tried out for the Quidditch team and made it on as a chaser. Minerva was excited and told Cato how Octavia was a top chaser back in her times on the Gryffindor team. Octavia knew in one of the trophy cases in the trophy room, there was a Chaser trophy with her name on one of the plaques that pointed out she was one of the highest scorers in Hogwarts history.

During these weeks, every time that he saw her, the DADA professor, Gilderoy Lockhart tried to ask Octavia out. She would stare at him and told him a blunt no before she dashed away. The man was absolutely annoying, especially when he bragged about his adventures, which Octavia knew were all lies. What made Octavia to laugh in disbelief about Lockhart was not only he passed out a quiz on himself to the classes on his first day, but he let out a cage full of pixies out on the second year students. The man was, in Severus words, an idiot.

Then the thought of Severus echoed in Octavia mind. It was still awkward between the two. But the past two weeks, the two managed to greet each other. She caught Severus a few times eyeing her from afar and he would look away quickly when he was caught. There were moments when Octavia felt that Severus wanted to talk, but he always walked away. She had her moments when she wanted to face him, to have a conversation, but every time she thought that she could do it, she remembered the reason why there was such an awkward air between them. Their past history still lingered front and center in her mind.

At the present moment, Octavia was in her classroom, watering the various plants. She was about to water a Wiggentree that grew in a large navy blue pot when someone cleared their throat from behind. Her eyes pulled away from the Wiggentree to see the last person she expected.

"Professor Snape, what are you doing up this high away from the dark dungeons?"

Severus eyes narrowed on her for her comment. He let his eyes glance around the bright surroundings of her classroom before his eyes rested back on her. From what he heard lately from the sixth and seventh years, Severus heard nothing but compliments about Octavia. She was obviously doing a good job at what she taught them. He noted that the sixth and seventh years that took her class, were showing great improvement in their potion making skills in his class.

"Madam Pomfrey had requested Oculus Potion." Severus requested.

"I would think that you would already have a supplies of Oculus Potion." She mumbled, narrowing her eyes on him.

"Actually I don't, not at the moment." Severus replied smoothly.

He crossed his arms over his chest as he watched Octavia to sigh. She set the water pail down, walked across her classroom and disappeared through the doorway of one of the doors in her classroom.

With her gone for a couple of seconds, Severus walked up to the Wiggentree that he saw Octavia watering. The tree was well kept, trimmed and a reasonable, healthy height. He knew she kept it under control to not outgrow in the classroom. It was a good ingredient for potions too. The Wiggentree bark was used in the Wiggenweld potion that awaken someone from deep sleep due to magical properties.

Severus reached out to touch one of the leaves, but Octavia voice yelling at him, stopped him.

"No, don't touch it!"

Severus backed away with his hands held up in front of him. His eyes watched as a thin green eight inch creature dropped from out of the Wiggenweld leaves. It was the color green that perfectly camouflaged with the Wiggenweld leaves. The creature had tiny brown eyes, a tiny mouth, legs and arms, which Severus noted the hands were extended in sharp, green claws.

"Why do you have a bowtruckle?" Severus asked, whirling to face Octavia.

Severus looked back down at the bowtruckle that was hugging the tree trunk, glaring up at him with those small, beady brown eyes.

The way that the bowtruckle protectively hugged the tree made Severus to mentally slap himself. He wasn't one for Care for Magical Creatures, but he knew enough to protect himself when he went hunting for potion ingredients. He knew that the Wiggentree was classified as a wand-wood tree and bowtruckle were known to protect wand-wood trees and many lived in Wiggentrees. To see one so up close, Severus watched how the bowtruckle had its own personality. It appeared to calm down and looked up at Octavia, pointing at the tree.

"I know, I know." Octavia sighed, picking up the water pail to water the Wiggentree. The bowtruckle got a peaceful look on its green twig face.

"You are talking to it?"

"Yes, I am talking to Bubba."

"Bubba? You name the bloody thing Bubba? Merlin, you have lost your mind."

"Cato named him Bubba after he found him when he was eight."

The new information that involved their son shut Severus up. Octavia held the bottle of Oculus potion to which he took. This was the most interaction they had with each other.

"How did you figure I had that potion when I just started?" Octavia asked him.

Even if it only had been a few weeks, Severus knew that Octavia assigned potion-making to her students in class for one of the lessons. He knew that she had the Oculus potion due to students bragging about it for the last couple of days.

"I overheard the seventh years enlarging their egos about how well they were doing in this class, especially after the good batch of Oculus potion they had made a couple days ago." Severus told her, eyeing the orange liquid inside the bottle.

"Well, then, if that is all." Octavia stepped away from him, going back to watering the plants, clearly dismissing him from her presence.

Severus clenched the bottle in his left hand. He felt the need to talk more with her, but held himself back from doing so. Images of how Octavia used to smile so brightly, a sparkle in her eyes, a tone so welcoming at his presence. But now, Octavia dismissed him without a glance. He deserved everything that she threw at him. The sight of their son growing up, who resembled both Octavia and Severus in some way, was sort of a reminder to Severus what he could've had if he didn't mess it up with Octavia.

Severus did not say another word to her. Being dismissed by Octavia was enough to leave her class quickly. A dull ache in the pit of his stomach.

Back in the classroom, Octavia let out a deep breath that she held in. She set the water pail down and sat herself down in one of the student's seats. Her heart raced against her ribcage, her body felt hotter than usual due to all the emotions that built up inside of her. Emotions that she wanted to unleash on him. But she would not do it. She had to stay strong. If their past was brought up, she hoped that he brought it up first before she ever did.

… **..**

… **.. A Few Days Later: …..**

… **..**

The first Quidditch practice had Cato pumped. He had woken up extra early, got dressed and went to breakfast, eating a good, hearty meal to keep his energy up. With practice gear already on, Cato went back to his room to gathered up his broom. He met up with the Weasley twins, the Beaters of the team, trying not to snicker at them upon because the twins were definitely not morning risers. The three soon met up with the rest of the others to follow their captain, Oliver Wood, the student that was all about Quidditch, to head down to the Quidditch pitch.

"I spent the summer devising a whole new Quidditch program. We're gonna train earlier, harder and longer." Oliver told his teammates, dodging a few early riser students that were walking around.

The team began to cross one of Hogwarts courtyards when they caught sight of another house team, dressed in their Quidditch gear.

"What? I don't believe it." Oliver groaned, clearly seeing they weren't the only ones with a plan to practice this morning.

The Slytherin team were all dressed up in their gear, clearly making their way to the Quidditch pitch to practice.

"Where you think you're going, Flint?" Oliver questioned the captain of Slytherin, Marcus Flint.

"Quidditch practice." Flint said with a snarl.

Cato rested his weight on his broom as he shook his head. He stood between the Weasley twins who became good friends with him. By the way Oliver stood close to Flint, Cato knew this will not turn out good. Even though Cato had been a transfer here for almost a month, he picked up almost immediately how Slytherin and Gryffindor were like oil and water. The two simply did not mix. But, then again, his parents were a Slytherin and a Gryffindor. And the fact that his best friend was a Slytherin.

"I booked the pitch for Gryffindor today."

"Easy, Wood, I've got a note." Flint held up a small scroll that Oliver snatched away from him.

Figures moved in the corner of his eyes. Cato turned his head to the side to see Ron and Hermione walking their way over to what was happening. Cato could say that he became friends with them, but not in the way that Ron, Hermione and Harry were. Those three were the trio of best friends that stuck together.

"I, Professor Severus Snape, do hereby give the Slytherin team permission to practice today, owing to the need to train their new seeker.' You got a new Seeker. Who?" Oliver read from the small scroll, dropping it away as he looked at Flint, wondering who their team new seeker was.

The Slytherin team members stepped aside to show Draco Malfoy who proudly stepped forward with the usual smug look on his face.

"Malfoy?" Harry, the Gryffindor Seeker, stepping forward with a disbelief tone as if he couldn't believe that Draco was the new Slytherin seeker.

"That is right and that's not all that's new this year." Malfoy said smugly, placing his broom in front of him to let it rest against his shoulder.

The Gryffindor team stared at the new black polish wood brooms with silver foot pegs. It was the new Nimbus 2001s that had just came out in the market only a few days ago. Not only did Draco have one, but the whole Slytherin team had them. That broom was expensive and known to be quick.

"Those are Nimbus 2001s. How did you get those?" Ron gasped out at the new brooms.

"A gift from Draco's father." Flint answered, smirking.

"You see, Weasley, unlike some, my father can afford the best." Draco shot at Ron.

Cato stood up straight from leaning against his broom. He felt the Weasley twins tense up beside him as that was their father that Draco insulted. Cato eyes narrowed on Draco, not a fan of how Draco was always cocky, rude and disrespectful to anyone that wasn't a Slytherin or respected him.

"At least no one on the Gryffindor team had to buy their way in. They got in on pure talent." Hermione retorted at Draco, holding nothing back to stick up for her best friends.

"No one asked your opinion, you filthy little mudblood." Draco said, stepping closer to Hermione to look her up and down with a look of disgust.

The offensive comment made Cato mouth to drop with the rest of the Gryffindor team. Some gasped as they couldn't believe that word slipped out of Draco's mouth. A word that was very disrespectful and discriminatory.

"You'll pay for that one, Malfoy. Eat Slugs!" Ron shouted, pulling out his broken, tapped up wand and flicked it at Draco's face, but his broken wand backfired. Ron had shot back a good couple of feet onto his back. When he sat up, he let out this gagging sound before he threw up a slug.

That made everyone to groan from the Gryffindor house, grossed out by the scene.

Cato felt himself being shoved aside as a first year ran up to Ron with a camera, snapping photos of what was happening with Ron.

"Wow! Can you turn him around, Harry?"

"No, Colin, get out of the way." Harry snapped, helping Ron up with Hermione to take him off somewhere.

They stood there watching Harry and Hermione take Ron away. The Slytherin team laughing at what had happened.

"We might as well wait until they are done." Oliver growled, glaring at the Slytherin team.

"See those three run off. Pathetic." Draco snickered.

The voice of Draco was beginning to annoy Cato. He shut his eyes for a couple of seconds to calm himself down from making his own remarks at him. He opened his eyes back up, his azure blue eyes sharp as he narrowed his eyes on Draco.

"What are you staring at, Flamel?"

"To be honest, nothing great." Cato smirked, George and Fred mouth dropped, but they bumped each other with their elbows at the sight of Draco speechless.

As the Gryffindor team walked away, this time they were snickering at how Cato left Draco speechless, which usually never happens all that much.

… **..**

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… **..**

… **..**

… **..**

 **Hi Everyone,**

 **Here was another chapter.**

 **Enjoy. Review.**

 **Thanks!**


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter:** Message on the Wall

… **..**

… **.. Couple Days Later: …..**

… **..**

The evening meal came to an end. Students were heading back to their common rooms and professors were heading off to their own quarters. Octavia walked with long strides, but came to a stop when she caught sight of students gathering around in one spot, whispers exchanged between them.

"What is going on?" Octavia said out loud.

"I don't know, dear." Minerva appeared beside her.

"Shall we?" Dumbledore said, appearing on the other side of Octavia with Severus and Gilderoy in tow.

"I'll kill you!" Flich shouted, grabbing the front of Harry's robes.

"Argus! Argus I—"Dumbledore said, but paused as he stared at the wall.

The professors moved behind Dumbledore, pushing by students until they stood before the group of students. Their eyes were on the wall where something was written in blood. On closer inspection, the blood writing said, ' _The Chamber of Secrets has been opened. Enemies of the Heir, beware.'_ Hanging from one of the torches near the writing was Filch's cat, Mrs. Norris. Standing nearby was the familiar trio, Harry, Ron and Hermione. Flich looking ready to attack Harry once more.

"Everyone will proceed to their dormitories immediately." Dumbledore announced.

The order from the headmaster got the students to listen. There was panic in their eyes as they knew that something was wrong. It wasn't every day blood writing appeared on the wall. With the students disbanding from the hallway, the trio tried to sneak off with the rest, but Dumbledore kept this eyes on them the whole time.

"Everyone except you three." Dumbledore pointed at Harry, Ron and Hermione.

Octavia stepped closer to the wall, staring up at it with curiosity. Her eyes moved to the cat, Mrs. Norris, because there was no blood marks on the cat. The blood on the wall was not from the cat. Gilderoy stepped up beside her, giving her a flash of a boyish grin that had her to cringe. He went to open his mouth to speak, but Dumbledore spoke over him, a breathless sigh of relief escaped Octavia as she did not want to hear Gilderoy talk.

She came to stand beside Severus, not wanting to stand beside the idiotic, smiling man.

"She's not dead, Argus. She has been petrified."

"Ah!" Gilderoy made a sound that caused a few to look at him.

"Thought so. So unlucky I wasn't here. I know exactly the counter curse that could've spared her." Gilderoy said, sending a wink at Octavia.

Octavia rolled her eyes at Gilderoy. She saw how the other professors stared at Gilderoy as if he was out of his mind. They all knew Gilderoy rambled nonsense. By Severus expression, he was shooting death glare daggers at Gilderoy. It made Octavia curious by Severus's reaction.

"But how she has been petrified, I cannot say." Dumbledore said.

"Ask him. It's him that's done it. You saw what he wrote on the wall." Flich gestured his head toward Harry.

"It's not true, sir. I swear. I never touched Mrs. Norris." Harry defended himself.

"Rubbish." Flich snapped, highly upset about his cat as tears were building up in his eyes.

"If I might, headmaster? Perhaps Potter and his friends were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time." Severus cut in.

For Severus to actually defend Harry, Octavia felt the world stop spinning. Her eyebrows rose as she could not wait to hear Severus defending a Potter.

"However." Severus said, beginning to walk closer to Harry, Ron and Hermione, but kept his eyes on Harry.

She should've known there would be a 'however.' She knew that most of the time, any sort of positive comment or one to defend something, will always have a 'but or a however' to contradict. That was Severus way of finding out the truth or be his stubborn self.

"The circumstances are suspicious. I, for one, don't recall seeing Potter at dinner." Severus stared down Harry, standing before the twelve year old.

"I'm afraid that's my doing, Severus. You see, Harry was helping me answer my fan mail." Gilderoy said causing Severus to look back at him.

"Fan mail? Really?" Octavia muttered underneath her breath, rolling her eyes.

"That's why Ron and I went looking for him, professor. We'd just found him when he said—"Hermione stop talking as both Ron and her looked at Harry who stared at them back to keep continuing the story.

"Yes, Miss Granger?" Severus questioned.

"When I said I wasn't hungry. We were heading back to the common room when we found Mrs. Norris." Harry jumped in quickly.

Octavia held back the smirk that wanted to come on her face when Severus face twisted a little at this story. It was clear that it was not the truth, but they could not prove it. Severus looked back at Dumbledore, waiting for the headmaster to say something about this story.

"Innocent until proven guilty, Severus." Dumbledore stated calmly.

"My cat has been petrified. I want to see some punishment." Flich cried from his spot.

"We will be able to cure her, Argus. As I understand it, Madam Sprout has a very healthy growth of Mandrake. When matured, a potion will be made which will revive Mrs. Norris. And in the meantime, I strongly recommend caution to all." Dumbledore explained, his eyes came to rest on the trio to fully understand what he meant.

With that, the Trio ran off down the hallway and disappeared around a corner to head back to their common rooms.

"I can help with brewing Mandrake Restorative Draught." Octavia said gently.

"Excellent." Dumbledore clapped his hands together with a twinkle in his blue eyes.

"You know that I am quite good with hands on things, such as potions." Gilderoy stepped closer to Octavia, giving her that smile and shake of his head as if it made him charming.

The closeness of Gilderoy got Octavia to take a step back and open her mouth to fire a comment back of not wanting his help and how he had to learn about personal space, but she did not have to say a word.

"Why don't you leave it in professional hands, such as a potion master or a healer? She is a healer, she can handle it just fine too. Stick with your classes, Lockhart." Severus stepped up to Gilderoy, who took steps back and away from Octavia as Severus an intimidated individual by his sheer presence.

"Fine, fine. But if you need my help dear." Gilderoy sent another wink at Octavia as he walked off down the hallway.

"That is the definition of an idiot." Octavia blurted out, she could not contain it anymore.

The blunt comment made Minerva, Dumbledore, Severus and Sprout eyes to land on Octavia. A smirk was on Severus lips, agreeing with her. Minerva had amusement dancing around in her eyes.

"Sorry, it slipped." Octavia mumbled, sucking in her bottom lip and gave a small shoulder shrug.

"Let us get to bed. For now, we will keep watch of any suspicious activities." Dumbledore told them, glancing at the wall one last time before walking away with everyone else.

… **..**

… **.. Few Days Later: …..**

… **..**

Octavia dressed in warm clothes that kept the fall weather temperature from giving her goosebumps. She saw by Minerva in a stand filled with professors and staff to watch the first Quidditch match of the season. Octavia did notice that the tower stand to her left contained more professors, staff and family members that rooted for Slytherin. Her eyes caught sight of Severus sitting a man with vibrant blond hair that she knew immediately that it was Lucius Malfoy. There was no doubt it was him by his hair and expensive clothes. He was here to see his son, Draco, play as the new Slytherin seeker.

Whenever it was Gryffindor versus Slytherin, all four houses were here to watch. The two rivalries between Gryffindor and Slytherin were always intense and brutal. When Madame Hooch blew the whistle, the game took off. It was clear that the Slytherin's new brooms were at an advantage as they flew around the pitch with great speed making the Gryffindor players to have a hard time keeping up.

Octavia had on her Gryffindor scarf and gloves, watching Cato go flying by with the burgundy color quaffle. He threw it over to a teammate, ducking right after as Flint tried to ram into him. The game was becoming violent. Both teams were elbowing each other, smashing their bodies into one another and even yelling at one another across the pitch.

When Cato got an elbow shot to his face that made Octavia go into mama bear mode. It did not help that she was competitive too because she got fired up even more. She stood up from her seat, fist clenched on her sides and glaring after the Slytherin player that hit Cato in the face.

"CATO, DON'T TAKE THAT! KICK HIS BUTT!"

"Dear, I don't think that you can say those things. You're a professor now." Minerva said, grabbing the back of Octavia's cloak sleeve to tug her back down in her seat.

"Oh, right, sorry."

Professor in the stand began to snicker, understanding the frustration and worry that Octavia felt for her child.

… **..**

"My word, Draco was right. Octavia Flamel is back in sight. I have to say, she looks more eye catching than ever." Lucius said, eyeing to his right at the tower stand that held most professor, staff and family members that supported Gryffindor.

"How's that going for you?" Lucius smirked at Severus.

The whole time that he watched the Quidditch match, Severus eyes did watch how his house team were doing, but his eyes kept resting on Cato. The way that Cato flied around the pitch and being a chaser, he was very much similar as his mother when she was a chaser. Strong, fast, agile and definitely didn't hold back to smash into someone to protect his teammates.

Seeing the elbow shot to Cato's face caused Severus to tense up. He watched closely as Cato hovered in his spot for a few seconds, holding his gloved hand over the lower part of his face. When Cato wiped his hand on his off white color Quidditch pants, Severus saw the blood smear. He knew that Cato was either bleeding from the mouth or nose. An uneasy feeling swirled in Severus stomach at the sight of his son injured.

"We are colleagues. It is fine."

"Even if your son is right there." Lucius waved his cane toward Cato flying by with the quaffle tucked underneath his left arm.

"Shush." Severus hissed.

"Oh, I see. No one knows. I can't understand why you don't make up. It's a pity really."

Severus eyes narrowed on Lucius. Lucius was known to not hold anything back and will tell the truth like it is. He did not care what the results were. Usually one does not stand up to Lucius Malfoy due to his power and money.

A sly smirk appeared on Lucius's lips as Severus continued to glare at him. It was clear to Severus that Lucius was waiting for him to reply, waiting to fall into his trap.

"Why is that?"

"Like I told you that night, to let Octavia go wasn't right. She is a woman that every man wishes to have. Now, I know that back then she was wanted by a certain somebody because of who she is, but knowing her personally, if I wasn't married, I would have snatch her right away, especially from you." Lucius said with a no-big-deal tone.

Severus took that hard as he felt himself become annoyed and angry. He didn't enjoy how Lucius thought that he could take anything he wanted for himself so easily. The way that Lucius told Severus that he could have Octavia for himself so easily if he wasn't married, stirred something deep inside Severus that made him want to lunge at Lucius.

"From me?" Severus hissed lowly at Lucius, flickering his eyes around to see that no one was listening in on them.

"Well, you always push people away, Severus. Just like you did Octavia. You didn't know what you have until it is gone, as some say." Lucius said, turning his attention back to watch the game, perfectly ignoring Severus shooting him a death glare.

Severus lean a tad bit in his spot to take a peek over to the other tower where Octavia sat with Minerva. She was clapping and cheering for Gryffindor, especially for Cato.

"Slytherin scores again. They lead Gryffindor 90 to 30."

… **..**

… **..**

… **..**

A timeout from Gryffindor took a couple of minutes before the game restarted. Cato saw that one of his fellow chaser teammate, Angelina Johnson was being attacked. He shot off toward them, dropping his left shoulder and smashing the Slytherin chaser off of her.

Octavia watched as Cato kept bumping and smashing into the Slytherin chaser Mr. Pucey, but her attention soon turned away when she heard gasping. Her eyes searched the pitch to see what had everyone gasping, but soon saw what caused everyone's reaction. She saw Harry was being chased by a Bludger and it was not letting up.

"Why is it chasing him like that?" Someone spoke from the back of the stand.

"It has been tampered with that is why." Octavia answered, keeping her eyes on Harry, but she glanced at Minerva to see the older witch gasping whenever the Bludger got close to hitting Harry.

Everyone eyes seemed to be on Harry as he flew around the pitch, dodging the Bludger. He did a series of twists and turns, but the Bludger kept coming back for him. He managed to get away from it for a couple of seconds, hovering near Draco. But then he shot off with his hand outstretched.

"He sees the snitch." Octavia stood up as Harry flew by with Draco bumping into him.

The two seekers dove down into the opening on the edge of the pitch. They dodged the wood beams that held the pitch together. The Bludger was following behind the two, mainly Harry.

"Look!" Minerva pointed out.

Draco shot out from the opening on the edge of the pitch, flipping through the air. He lost his broom halfway through his series of flips. He slammed onto the ground on his butt then he fell backwards, curling up in a ball and holding his stomach.

"Oh that knocked the wind out of him." Octavia grinned, her attention went back to watch Harry's right arm outreached toward the snitch.

Suddenly, the Bludger came out of nowhere and smashed into his right arm causing him to spin once on his broom. He held his right arm across his chest. Everyone gasped, watching as Harry flew low to the ground with his left arm outstretched. He leaned forward on the broom and then he wiped out into the sand part of the pitch. He held up his left arm to present the snitch.

"Harry Potter has caught the Snitch. Gryffindor wins!"

"Yes!" Minerva and Octavia jumped up from their seats, giving each other a high five.

The Bludger was still on the attack to take out Harry, but Hermione was on the pitch with other Gryffindors. She shot the Bludger out of the sky before it could hurt Harry anymore.

"I think we need to get down there." Octavia said, making her way to the stand staircase.

… **..**

By the time that Octavia got down to the pitch, her mouth dropped at the sight of Harry being held up by the Hermione and Ron. What had her attention was that fact that Harry's right arm appeared to be made out of rubber.

"What happened?" Octavia ran forward.

"Well, you see, I thought that I could heal him right up." Gilderoy said with a sheepish grin.

"He got no more bones!" Hagrid shouted.

"Don't you ever heal another student again!" Octavia growled at Gilderoy with a glare.

"Can't you heal it, Professor?" Harry asked.

"There's no bones, Mr. Potter. You will have to drink Skele-gro to grow your bones back." Octavia explained, eyeing his arm hanging there and bouncing around with no bones for support.

She held herself from hexing Gilderoy ass for his stupidity.

"Ms. Flamel."

Octavia snapped out of her plots of hexing Gilderoy. She turned around to see Severus walking alongside Lucius Malfoy. She glanced at Harry and the team that gathered around him.

"Go ahead. Tell Madam Pomfrey word to word of what happen to you. Okay?"

"Yes, professor." Harry nodded, walking away with his teammates and best friends.

"Mr. Malfoy, long time no see." Octavia held her hand out to shake his.

"Ms. Flamel, you look stunning as ever." Lucius grinned, bringing Octavia right hand up to press his lips against the back of it.

Severus hands clenched inside his cloak. He held himself back from hexing Lucius. Severus tried to convince himself that he was not bothered by this, but it was hard to do so.

"Flattery gets you nowhere, Lucius." Octavia pulled her hand away.

"A man has to try." Lucius chuckled, resting his gloved hands on top of the snake head cane that hid his wand.

"Yes, I suppose so. Now, if you'll excuse me, gentlemen, I am going to go check with Madam Pomfrey to see if she needs any lending medical hand. Good day." Octavia nodded, her eyes briefly met Severus before she began to make her journey back up to the castle.

"Like I said Severus, you don't know what you had until it was gone." Lucius shook his head.

Severus simply glared at Lucius, but his expression did soften as he looked to the path that Octavia was walking on.

… **..**

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… **..**

… **..**

 **Hi Everyone,**

 **Here was another chapter.**

 **Thanks!**


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter:** Caution

… **..**

… **.. The Next Day: …..**

… **..**

A faculty and staff meeting was held after lunch the next day. It was an emergency meeting that made everyone to know that something was either wrong with somebody, the school or both.

Upon entering the staff room, Octavia walked to the table to get herself a cup of coffee. A mug was held out in front of her with coffee already made for her. Her hands reached out to accept the mug and she looked up to Severus.

"Does—"

"Enough cream to make it light tan and three sugars." Severus said, showing how he had never forgotten.

Octavia gave him a small nod and brought it to her lips. She turned on the heel of her boots to eye all the other professor and staff that were in the room. They were buzzing with talk about ideas of why the sudden emergency call for a meeting.

"Do you have any idea?"

"No." Severus shook his head.

When Minerva appeared into the staffroom, a few went up to her and asked her what was wrong, but she held up a hand to show that she was to be informed to everyone. Everyone sat down or stood by, quieting down to listen with what she will tell them.

"Another has come down to be a victim of being petrified."

That got gasps to echo around the room.

Severus couldn't help but roll his eyes at how everyone's gasp was too dramatic. He glanced down in the corner of his eyes at Octavia to see her sipping the coffee that he literally had made for her quickly when she first stepped into the words of Lucius Malfoy bothered him all night that it kept Severus up, staring at old photos of the past and kept thinking of the words that Lucius jabbed at him.

It had Severus thinking about Cato too. Was it fair for him to be so close to his father and not be able to talk or come to him when he wanted? Severus could admit that Octavia raised the boy well. He was top of his class and was excellent with potions. Severus felt that he wasn't father material, but every time he looked at Cato, he thought of what if he never driven Octavia out. Would they be a happy family or close to it? He had everything right there and he let it go. It made him feel horrible about himself. He had convinced himself that he needed to makeup with Octavia someway, so that they could at least be civil with one another.

"Headmaster wants me to inform everyone that the school is not safe anymore. The Chambers has been open. We will have to be watchful over our students now." Minerva told everyone with a grave look on her face.

"Could the school be possibly shut down if more is to happen? One or two will began to raise alarms, but two or more will start to question the Headmaster himself." Octavia asked, holding the mug in her hands and she stared straight at Minerva. A few others stared with curiosity at Minerva, wanting to know the answer too.

"It is possible."

That got another dramatic gasp from a few.

"That is all." Minerva left the staff room.

Immediately, everyone was whispering to each other in groups, talking about this sudden news. Octavia drank a good amount of the coffee then set it aside to leave the staff room. Though Gilderoy followed her. Before Gilderoy could come any closer to her, the staff room door was slammed in his face. Octavia turned to see that Severus stood closely behind her and had been the one to slam the door in Gilderoy face.

"Thanks for that."

"In all honestly, it was for my own pleasure." Severus assured her making Octavia to snort in amusement and walked away, where Severus stood back and watched her go.

… **..**

… **.. A Week Later: …..**

… **..**

A week went by and November was a few days from turning into December. Octavia knew that Christmas vacation was coming up. It made her to keep reminding herself to ask Cato if they were staying at Hogwarts or leaving.

Octavia walked around her classroom, keeping a close eye on how her Seventh year N.E.W.T level students were doing on their charmed mannequin. She had charmed the mannequins to act as if they were victims of a splinching. The students were in pairs and had to figure out what to use in their medical pack that contained bandages, potions that they had created and herbs.

"Good job, Ms. Whitter and Mr. Pillar on taking care of the major wounds first then using Episkey for the much simpler injuries. Ten points to Ravenclaw and Gryffindor." Octavia said as she took note at how calm and smoothly the two worked together on their patient mannequin.

"Mr. Sleek and Mr. McVee, interesting method to use a calming draught on the patient then used a perfectly well down Tergeo and a Ferula spell. Ten points to Slytherin and Gryffindor."

The two high-fived one another with grins. The sight made Octavia to smile. To see two rivalry houses, working together and at their accomplishments, they were so very excited for each other.

The chime of the bell signaled class was over. Octavia helped the students clean up and put away their assigned mannequins. She moved to the front of the class as they were packing up.

"I want all of you to start reading about the Felix Felicis. The reason is because we will be getting into potion poisoning and addiction to potions that can cause harmfulness to the body. From there, we'll figure out how to approach the patient and make a plan to help the patient. For now, I want you to read up on Felix Felicis very carefully, give me a short essay about the potion and then the negative effects of said potion. That will be all. Have a good day and good job everyone." Octavia said, walking behind her desk to start grading papers from the sixth and seventh years from the night before.

She graded until it came to lunch time where she sat down in her usual seat between Minerva and Severus at the staff table. The students appeared very lively about something making Octavia to look at Minerva for answers.

"The dueling club was brought to DADA today. Severus helped Gilderoy with it."

"Really? Please tell me that you blasted him." Octavia faced Severus with a pleading look causing Severus to cough into his pumpkin juice and looked at her with clear amusement glinting in his dark eyes.

"Octavia!" Minerva gasped.

Octavia turned to face the older woman to apologize, but saw Minerva was grinning afterwards showing that she wasn't really scowling her.

"Well, I am serious. Did you?" Octavia faced Severus again.

"Indeed."

"Good."

"Children aren't just talking about the club, they are talking about Potter speaking parseltongue to a snake that Draco summoned in their duel." Severus told her.

"Wait, what? Parseltongue? Harry speaking it? But only—"

"The heir of Slytherin can do that." Severus mumbled to her.

"Oh my, the poor boy."

"Yes, the poor boy once again drawing attention to himself just like his father." Severus muttered angrily and stabbed into his piece of chicken, taking his anger out on it.

Octavia opened her mouth but shut it as she did not want to get into this. In the past, there had been arguments mostly about Potter and Black. The last argument they had resolved around Severus getting hurt, Octavia concerned for him for being a Death Eater that was destroying him physically, mentally and emotionally. Somehow it soon led into the Potter family and that led up to Octavia bringing up if Severus wished to be in the shoes of James Potter's life. That led to Severus to slip up about Lily and how he would have wanted her.

She felt the old emotions welling up as she sat at the table.

Octavia looked down at her plate, stabbing at a piece of broccoli and brought it to her mouth, chewing it then swallowing, not finding herself enjoying the food anymore. She was not hungry anymore. Wiping her mouth, she tossed her cloth napkin onto the plate and stood up.

"I'm not feeling that hungry. Excuse me." She whispered, leaving the table to head back to her classroom.

"Octavia." Minerva called for her, but frowned as Octavia used the back door behind the table to leave.

"Why did she leave like that? She was perfectly fine, joking around and such." Minerva said, glancing at Dumbledore who stared at Severus over his half-moon glasses with a knowing look.

Severus looked away from the old wizard to stare down at his plate as he was trying to figure out the same thing Minerva questioned about and why Dumbledore gave him that look. One moment Octavia was showing a side that made them all have amusement and the next she got a deep thoughtful look on her face and a frown before she left. The comment about Potter was when her expression changed.

Then it hit him.

The last time that he mentioned about Potter it ended their relationship. Severus held back a growl as he felt that Potter will continue to ruin everything for him. Then again, Severus was the one that truly ruin it in the end with his words and feelings.

Severus went back to stabbing his chicken making Minerva to stare at him with concern, but flinched a little as he ripped his piece of chicken a part with an angry expression. She looked at Dumbledore, who continue to eat his meal, but there was a small frown on his lips.

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"You should have seen it, mom. He literally sent him flying into the air and he slammed at the end of the table."

"Yes, he was always good with dueling."

"Mom, are you okay?"

"Yes, yes, why do you ask that?" Octavia turned away from petting Felix to stare at Cato.

Cato had been expressing about how he was impressed with Severus during the duel and how strong he was in casting spells. Octavia couldn't help but be glad that her son wasn't hating Severus. Octavia didn't want that from Cato. She told him to try seeing Severus in a good light and not let her past with Severus affect how Cato wanted to know about Severus personally.

Octavia wanted Cato to have a positive childhood as he grew. However, she will not stop Cato if he wanted to express his feelings about how he felt toward Severus. Mostly, about the reason why he wasn't around or tried to stay with Octavia.

"You seem to be daze as if you are thinking about something."

"Oh, just thinking of how to approach the next lesson of classes. Do not worry." Octavia ruffled his hair making him to groan as she messed up his long hair.

"Mom, is it okay if Isaac stays with us for Christmas?"

"I assume we are going home for Christmas?"

"Yes, if that is okay?"

"Of course and it is fine that Isaac can stay. Though can I ask why?"

Cato looked behind him then around the classroom before he stepped closer to her.

"He doesn't live in a good home environment. Having pureblood parents, they see him an outcast of the family because of how he doesn't like the Slytherin or pureblood ways. His two older siblings are all about it, but not him. They treat him like a house elf, mom. He told me that they will not notice if he is gone."

"I see. Yes, that is perfectly fine. He can stay over whenever he wants as long as he wants." Octavia told Cato with a gentle smile, feeling her motherly instincts kick in.

"Thanks, mom. I told him that you'll say yes because you are so overprotective."

"Yes, but there's a thing called motherly instincts and to protect. We will do anything to protect our young. Though it seems like Isaac wasn't so lucky with his."

"Yeah, I know. I'm going to go tell him that you said yes." Cato smiled, hugging her and then ran out of her classroom.

Cato ran into someone hard and he fell backwards onto his behind. He stood up quickly, brushing himself off to see who he ran into and saw it was Severus.

"Sorry, professor." Cato said lowly, moving around Severus, but he was stopped by a hand on the back of his robe collar.

Dragged back in front of Severus, Cato looked up at the man that was his father.

"What you said about Mr. Silver? Is that true?" Severus asked in a low tone.

Here was his son, who became friends with the outcast of Slytherin. The boy Isaac Silver came from a pureblood family where they were former death eaters. It was clear that Isaac should have been in Ravenclaw, but due to his past family generation and blood status that most likely got him placed into Slytherin. The boy was picked on by other Slytherins because he didn't partake in activities that the Slytherin house did. The boy was always focus on his schoolwork and kept to himself. It sort of reminded Severus of himself, but Severus joined in on Slytherin acts toward the end of his final years as a student.

"You were eavesdropping?"

"If it is the well-being of one of my students in my house, yes, I will." Severus hissed as he stared down at Cato's bright azure blue eyes that he took after Octavia.

"Fine. Yes, it is true. Can I go now, Professor?"

"Yes."

Severus watched Cato speed walk away. He looked away when Cato disappeared around a corner. His attention went to the door that led into Octavia classroom. For the past hour, he would pass the stairs that led up to this level where her classroom was and when he did go up the stairs, he began to debate whether or not to talk to her.

After running into Cato, Severus turned away and decided not today. He couldn't bring himself to face Octavia after he faced their son. The son that called him professor even in private. Deep down, Severus thought what the word 'dad' or 'father' would sound like coming from Cato. He shook it off, trying not to get too sensitive about the thought.

Making his way back to the dungeons, Severus went straight to his office and slammed the door, going on to grade papers and take his frustration out on first and second years papers.

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 **Hi Everyone,**

 **Here was another chapter.**

 **Thanks!**


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter:** Winter Break

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 **…** **.. Christmas Break: …..**

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The boys were outside enjoying the snowfall while Octavia was in the kitchen, flicking her wand about at certain kitchenware while checking the oven where the turkey was baking.

There were all sorts of multitasking going on throughout the kitchen as she was trying to prepare a Christmas Eve feast for the three of them.

The Christmas tree was up in the living room area in the corner and beside the fireplace. Presents were placed underneath the tree. Octavia doing extra shopping for Isaac as his family didn't send him anything.

Earlier, she had sent presents to Hogwarts for all the professors and staff, hoping they enjoyed their gifts. She hadn't sent Severus his gift yet as she was afraid that he'll open it before Christmas Day. So, she'll send it early Christmas morning.

The present was one that she had for years, but never sent it to him. For she always found herself thinking about their past and how they split up. The present did have meaning behind it. One that Octavia hoped that Severus appreciated.

"Smells good, mom."

Turning away from the oven, Octavia quickly flicked her wrist with her hand outstretched toward the boys that came in through the backdoor, dripping wet of snow. They smiled as they felt their clothes become dry and the snow melted right off their clothes.

"Get ready for dinner you two. I just need to plate the food."

Cato ran upstairs with Isaac, who had the bedroom across from Cato.

The house was a good size home that some would classify the family as having money. Having the Flamel inheritance passed down through generations, there was a lot saved up. The house was located in West Country on the border of Tinworth. Close to the ocean, away from people and it was near a small patch of woods. The house was built out of stone. It was two stories with four bedrooms and three and a half bathrooms. What was the attraction of the house was how the basement had a connected on underground greenhouse. There were openings for sunlight for the greenhouse. Outside, the flowers and bushes hid the charmed greenhouse windows well from being seen by those walking around on the yard and not noticing that they walked on top of a decent size greenhouse.

The basement had a lab and the greenhouse. Octavia had been planting various herbs and various plants for potion making.

A pop behind Octavia made her to turn around to see large brown eyes staring up at her.

"Hello, Mimi."

"Hello, Miss Flamel. Mimi had dropped off the presents at Hogwarts just as you asked."

"Thank you Mimi." Octavia smiled down at her loyal house elf.

Mimi had appeared in Octavia's room back at Hogwarts where Octavia asked Dumbledore if Mimi could be her house elf back home. With agreements, Octavia offered nicely fit clothes to Mimi, who said that she was happy to serve Octavia without the new clothes. Though Octavia told the house elf that she wanted the elf to be free and work on her own decision. Now, Mimi wore nicely fit clothes while being overly happy about Octavia's generosity. Mimi is a free elf, yet she enjoyed that she got to make the decision on whether or not she would work for Octavia and her son.

"Um, Professor Flamel."

"Out of school, you can call me Octavia, Mr. Silver." Octavia looked up from Mimi to see Isaac stepping through the doorway of the kitchen.

"Only if you can call me Isaac."

"Deal." Octavia nodded.

The house elf move over to the kitchen counter to give the two privacy by going about plating the food.

Octavia stared at Isaac as he was nervously moving unsteadily back and forth on his feet, his hands clasped in front of him. He opened his mouth to talk but shut it quickly to gulp in a hard manner.

"Isaac, what's the matter?"

"I—I—" Isaac paused and let out a deep exhale of annoyance for his inability to talk calmly to her.

Taking a few breaths and stood up taller as Isaac stared at Octavia with as much calmness as possible.

"I want to thank you for allowing me to stay."

"You're welcome. You can stay as long as you like."

"Really?" His eyes widen at her telling him this new news.

"Yes."

"Well, that got me to ask you something else. Cato told me to suck it up and ask."

"Okay. Go ahead." Octavia crossed her arms over her chest as she stared at the thirteen year old with a waiting face.

"Is it possible if I could stay here for good?"

That got Octavia eyebrows raised and her arms to drop down to her sides. She watched as Isaac bowed his head, his messy dark hair hiding his face. Octavia stepped closer to Isaac to see him peek up through his hair to show unshed tear-filled eyes.

"Isaac, what's going on?"

"I—I was kicked out of my home. My parents disowned me for not following their ways."

"Oh my." Octavia mouth dropped and she stepped forward, pulling Isaac into a hug as he softly cried into her shoulder.

Octavia swallowed hard, trying not cry herself as she wanted to stay strong for Isaac. She remembered a certain old friend that was in the same situation as Isaac. A friend that's in Azkaban at the moment, who had been disowned from his family too after he ran away from home.

"You can stay here as long as you want. I won't turn you away." Octavia softly told Isaac as she rubbed his back with her right hand.

Her eyes flicker up to see Cato standing in the kitchen doorway now, giving her a frown, but he soon gave her a grin after as he saw that she accepted Isaac into their home.

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 **…** **.. Christmas Day: …..**

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The dark dungeons lit by torches wasn't exactly the illustration of a jolly holiday such as Christmas.

Sitting by a fire in a leather seat with a cup of black coffee and reading a book on Dark Arts, dressed in black pants and a white button up long sleeve shirt was Severus, who was dodging everyone during the holiday.

Yesterday, Severus had stayed and ate in his room because he knew that the Great Hall would be decorated with everything Christmas. He didn't want to be around the cheerfulness of his fellow colleagues and he especially did not want to be around Gilderoy. Then another reason was because deep down he was upset that Octavia was not here. Therefore, Severus really did not want to face anyone. He rather brood in loneliness in his room as he has been doing for years.

The sound of popping made his eyes to shoot up from his book to see presents laid out on the coffee table before him. A sigh escaped Severus as he knew that it was the other professors that sent him gifts. Usually the house elves brought them in and left just as quickly to not face any of his criticism about the gifts.

It was the usual gifts from the professors. Minerva was usually new winter hat and gloves, Sprout usually gave him a package of herbs for potions, Hagrid gave him a box of tea, and Dumbledore gave him the usual boxes of various sweets. A box from Gilderoy was present on the table. Severus only open it slightly with a cautious look to see it was Gilderoy's books with his autograph.

"Really?" Severus muttered and tossed it into the green fire, watching it quickly burn and break apart.

The sight of another package made him to reach out. It was thick and was wrapped in dark shiny green wrapping paper. There was a small piece of folded up paper tucked in the bow that made Severus to pull it out and unfold the paper.

Severus felt his eyes go wide at the familiar handwriting.

 _'_ _Severus,_

 _I have kept this for years as I could not find it in myself to hand it to you right away. I found myself pausing then become angry about even thinking about sending it. But now, as time passed, I feel that it is the right time to finally give this to you. For all the years that you missed.'_ **** _Octavia._

Setting the note back on the coffee table, Severus ripped the wrapping paper off. His hands came to rest on a large thick leather book that he opened slowly to show the first page of an image of a newborn Cato.

The page also showed a copy of Cato's birth certificate where it showed Cato full name, his height, weight, where he was born, and his birthdate.

As Severus kept flipping through the book, it was then Severus realized it was a scrapbook of the years of Cato growing up as it went in perfect order. It showed the years of his birthday, events and moments in his life as he grew. All the years that he missed. Each page decorated to fit the photos shown on the page.

Severus felt his hands clenching the book tightly in his hold as he took this all in. He felt it was too much, but he continue to go through.

He could understand why Octavia had a hard time sending this to him as he had pushed this life out of his life. Yet, she collected the moments of Cato's life for him. For him to be able to see what he had missed. Severus knew it was not in a negative way, but rather, to catch him up. The note sort of hinted that to him. This scrapbook of Cato was to give Severus a view of Cato's life as he grew.

When Severus got to the end, there were many more pages to add on. Severus eyes rest on the last photo that showed a moving photo of Cato and Octavia. The moving photo showed Octavia tightly hugging Cato while smiling at the camera. Cato was trying not smile, but soon, Cato ended up smiling then laughing.

The image was perfect and it made Severus to begin to wonder if he could ever fit in.

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 **…** **.. Next Day: …..**

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"Miss Flamel."

"Yes, Mimi?" Octavia looked up from the cauldron with a now finished pepperup potion.

"A Master Snape is here."

"What?" Octavia almost dropped the bottle that she began to fill up.

Quickly filling the bottle up and capping it, Octavia set it aside on a table. She then quickly flicked her wand around the lab to clean up. Octavia made her way across the lab then began to walk up the stairs to head up onto the main level of the house.

In the foyer stood Severus, eyeing around his surroundings before looking toward Octavia as if he sensed her presence.

"Hello, Severus."

"Hello, Octavia."

"This is a sudden surprise."

"Yes, well I wanted to tell you thank you for the gift. It was thoughtful." Severus lowly told her as he glanced a bit away from staring at her face, but then he looked back at her with those dark eyes.

"You're welcome. I'm sorry I held it for those years." Octavia said.

"No, no, I found it a bit more enjoyable to see him growing up through the years. Though I can't help but wanted to be there." Severus lowly admitted the last part with a regret flashing across his face.

Octavia bowed her head with her hands clenched together in front of her before she softly called out to Mimi. Octavia asked the house elf for a tray of tea to be deliver in the living room area where Octavia led Severus into.

In the living room before he sat down, Severus walked around to eye the new surroundings that he walked in to. He came to stand near the fire mantel where picture frames sat on top of it with some knickknacks.

Octavia watched Severus reach out to touch a frame where it was a picture frame that showed one side of her flying on her broom during her senior year at Hogwarts as a Gryffindor chaser. On the other side of the picture frame showed Cato on his broom as a chaser, dressed in his Gryffindor robes. Both photos showed the same exact movement between the two. The photos clearly showed that Cato learned from Octavia.

"You taught Cato how to fly?"

"Yes, he found some of my old Quidditch gear and some photos that he wanted to play too. So, I taught him what I knew." Octavia told Severus as she smiled.

A pop and Mimi appeared with a tray. Octavia softly thanked Mimi as the house elf set the tray down on the glass coffee table before the seats.

The tray contained a pot of tea with the cups and there was a plate of some cookies. Octavia poured tea into the two cup then moved it onto a saucer to place in front of the arm chair that was near the couch that she sat on.

"This is a nice home." Severus eyed around the room again then lower himself into the armchair then reach out to pick up the saucer with the cup filled with tea.

"Thank you. I wanted to be near the ocean." Octavia replied then took a sip of her own tea.

It was an awkward silence after that before Severus moved about in his seat that Octavia let her eyes to flicker over to him. She watched as Severus reach into his cloak to pull out a box. With a flick of his wand the box enlarged to normal size. He then held it out to her.

"For you."

"You didn't have to get me anything." Octavia replied as she set the cup of tea down.

"I believe that I have missed enough years." Severus lowly told her as he slid the box across the coffee table toward her.

He then pulled out another box that he flicked his wand again to enlarge the box to its normal size. It was a decent size box and he set that one aside.

"For Cato." Severus mumbled as he eyed the box with a nervous look on his face.

Octavia got a feeling that the reason why Severus had a nervous look on his face as he stared at the present he got for Cato was because he wasn't sure what Cato liked. He most likely was going off of what he took notice of what Cato took interest in.

"What did you get him?"

"The new goggles that just came out for Quidditch. It changes lens depending on the weather."

"Oh good, he kept asking about it and I told him maybe for his birthday. Those goggles are perfect for all the weather, especially when it gets cold and it freezes up, the charm on those goggles heat up to keep the lens clear." Octavia told him as she reached out to take her present in her hand to slowly began unwrapping the present.

Taking the cover off the box, Octavia got a small grin on her face as she reached into the box to pull out a book that appeared old. She turned it over and she ran her right hand over the cover, seeing it was an old book about ancient healing and potions. Her fingertips trace over the golden lettering with a grin becoming wider across her lips.

"Thank you." Octavia whispered as she looked up at Severus with a soft look.

"Welcome." Severus bowed his head though looked up at her through his dark eyelashes to see that she greatly enjoyed the book that he got her.

The exchange of a gift slowly got Octavia to begin talking to Severus with no hesitation. They talked about their classes and how it was going this year.

Though when conversation turned to Cato, Severus took advantage to learn everything about their son. Severus felt that every time that he saw Cato in his classes or when he was grading Cato's work, Severus felt himself cracking as he wanted to know more about Cato. At times, Severus felt these impulses to call Cato his son out loud.

Noting that he had been here for about close to two hours, Severus stood up and mention about getting some work done for the next term. Octavia walked with Severus back to the foyer to the front door.

They stood across from one another. They actually had a decent conversation without any sort of snarky comments or sarcasm. Nothing was brought up about the past and how their relationship ended. After tonight, it made the two to realize that there is still something kindling inside them for one another.

"Severus before you leave, I have to tell you something."

Severus paused in opening the front door to face her. He felt his heartbeat beginning to pick up as the last time that he heard that from Octavia, she had admitted in a fit of rage that she was pregnant. It was the last part of her comment that got his heart beat too quickly pound against his ribcage.

"Yes?"

"Isaac Silver was disowned by his family. He is staying with me for now on. I wanted to inform you this since he is a part of your house. I already sent an owl to Dumbledore to inform him of the circumstances too." Octavia told him with her hands wrangling together.

Severus hand came up to his mouth to run over it. His fingertips rub against the snubs of hair that he need to shave. He dropped his hand away from his face to pat down on his side with a sigh escaping him. For Severus knew that something like this was going to happen after Cato informed him about Isaac's home life.

"I see. Are you sure that you want to take him in? Even with him being a Slytherin."

"Of course. Cato sees him like a brother. Plus, I don't care what house that he is in. He's a thirteen year old boy that faced the harsh reality of blood status at a young age. A boy that couldn't grasp the pureblood status and the inequality towards the blood status." Octavia replied to Severus with a strong voice.

"Okay. To be honest, I am glad that Isaac found a home with you."

That got Octavia to tilt her head to the side as she stared at him with curiosity for his comment.

"Because with the way you raised Cato and your personality of being protective and kindhearted to those that need it, you are the perfect candidate. See you back at Hogwarts, Octavia." Severus told her, bowing his head then left the house with his black cloak fluttering behind him.

The front door shut behind Severus, leaving an owl blinking Octavia behind. She had been complimented by Severus before, but for him to compliment her in such a high standard shocked her. Severus complimenting in general was rare to many.

Octavia crossed her arms over her chest, trying to calm herself down from the shocked state. Trying to understand Severus ways lately toward her and wondering if he was trying to make redemption on gaining her trust again.

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 **Hi Everyone,**

 **Here was another chapter.**

 **Thanks!**


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter:** Return to School

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Back from Christmas break, the children were back to schoolwork. Though it took a few days to get the students to snap back into the academic reality and out of their vacation modes. What helped to get students back into school mode was experiencing potions with Snape, which caused them to quickly jump back into school mode.

Octavia was excited over her seventh years since they were quickly grasping the information, taking on pressure and working smoothly whenever she put a charmed mannequin in front of them with a random injury. Though when it came to diseases that usually took time.

As for the sixth years that Octavia was teaching, at the moment they were talking about the Draught of Living Death and the Wiggenweld Potion. She warned them that they would most likely be making this potion with Professor Snape soon. For now, she gave the lesson and the proper ingredients to make the potion to perfection. With Octavia explaining about many potions that help in the medical field and Severus, obviously, teaching potions, the students were getting double the knowledge. Sometimes students came in and immediately knew how to approach a problem with a certain potion or herb because of learning it from potions class. It was vice versa as students would go into potions class, knowing a good amount to make an approved potion by Severus.

Before Octavia dismissed the class after she had put the homework onto the chalkboard at the front of the class, she asked the usual question of 'does anyone have any questions' in order to make sure that everyone understood the homework. A Gryffindor student, Roger Hobs raised his hand up.

"Yes, Mr. Hobs?"

"If more students get petrified, will Hogwarts be shut down?"

The question had caused the students to pause in packing to look at Hobs before their eyes were on Octavia, curious about the answer to this question too. Of course, it was always somebody that would speak up for the rest of the class.

"If we do not catch the culprit or figure out what is going on, then most likely yes. I will not lie to any of you, but I guarantee that if you ask your other professors or your head of the house, they'll have the same answer or along those lines." Octavia told the class truthfully, since they were old enough to understand what was happening.

She was waiting for a question about what was happening in the school from her students. She did not blame them because their academics were helping them get into their future careers.

Satisfied of the answer, the students left her classroom as there was nothing more to say. The explanation was simple. The school could close down if students would continue to be petrified. There was no guarantee of the students safety because no one knew when the culprit will strike again, or rather, no one had any idea of who it was.

Octavia let out an annoyed sigh as she didn't want the school to close down in her first year of teaching. There was a shaking sound that made Octavia to glance over at Felix where he was preening his feathers, but poked his head up when she walked toward him.

"You'll start a storm up when you sense danger around us, right Felix?" Octavia asked the Thunderbird as she reached up to pet Felix's head softly.

A thrill and shake of his wings made her to smile as Felix acknowledged her question. She gave him one last pat and then move over to her desk where she began grading the sixth and seventh year's homework from the night before.

When Felix let out a loud thrill sound, Octavia looked up from the papers where she saw Severus coming into the classroom with his narrowed eyes on the Thunderbird. Octavia eyes moved over to Felix, seeing him bow his head with eyes sharply on Severus.

"Well, Felix thank you for the heads up about danger around us."

"Ha ha." Severus said dryly, moving slowly around the classroom with his eyes still upon Felix.

"Felix, he is fine, enough glaring." Octavia told the Thunderbird who bobble his head and then stood taller and straighter on his perch.

"Is there something that I can do for you?" Octavia asked, looking away from Felix to continue reading through a sixth year's paper with her red ink quill hovering over the paper.

"Cato's birthday?"

"Yes, what about it?" Octavia replied as she still went about correcting the paper.

"It is March 3rd."

"Yes, and?"

"It is in a month."

"Yes, that is enough time to get him something. Why are you worry about this?" Octavia looked up at him finally, staring at him, which he was staring down at her before he looked away when she caught eye connection.

It was when Octavia was struck with realization that the real reason that Severus was here to talk about Cato was also a way for him to see what she was doing. The realization of what Severus was doing had caused a weird twist in her stomach, thinking about how Severus was checking up on her.

"Just want to be ahead of schedule."

"Like hell, Severus. What is wrong? Does it has to do with the school?"

"Not exactly, more like an idiot pest that will not go away." Severus mumbled.

There was the sound of singing that was coming closer and closer to the classroom. Octavia's eyebrows rose as she lean a little to the side in her chair to look around Severus toward the classroom door. For a brief moment, her eyes flicker up to stare at Severus to see that he did not turn to face the door, but he had a look of irritation on his face. She sworn that she saw a twitch near his right eye.

The singing got louder until it came to a halt when Gilderoy appeared in the doorway of her classroom with a wide smile. His head gave a little shake as he looked around her classroom until his eyes came to settle on Severus and then Octavia.

"Ah, Professor Snape and Professor Flamel, just the people I wanted to see, actually more so Professor Flamel."

Octavia sat back upright in her seat and her eyes moved onto Severus. His eyes were shut, his hands were flexing on his sides. His eyes snapped back open at the same time that he made a sharp turn on the heels of his boots to stare at Gilderoy, who made his way over to stand beside Severus in front of Octavia's desk.

Octavia glanced between the two men before her desk, staring at each other. One stare was a dark glare and the other was smiling dumbly, not realizing that his presence wasn't welcome.

"Um, what can I do for you Gilderoy?"

"Well, my good dear."

The small pet name that Gilderoy used toward her made her to twitch. She held herself back from a gag reflex from happening when Gilderoy gave her a wide smile with a small nod of the head, acting as if he was the best thing that had ever happened.

"I had got Headmaster Dumbledore to approve my Valentine celebration in the Great Hall in a few days. I was wondering if you'll like to be my Valentine before anyone else got ahead of me." Gilderoy's right hand shot out to show in his hand a small bouquet of flowers. He gave her a wink too.

Never before had Octavia ever been asked to be someone's Valentines. There were the times that she exchanged candy and cards with her friends, but she never had an admirer. Through her school years, she had been going out with Severus; therefore, there was never a celebration of Valentines. He was not a fan of the holiday and he did not want to be involve with anything pink since it made him cringe. Thus, Octavia felt a little weird when she was asked to be someone's Valentine, and she wished it was somebody other than Gilderoy that was asking her.

As Octavia opened her mouth to give her answer to Gilderoy, she let out a gasp as she watched the flowers in Gilderoy's hand to burst into flames. With the sudden aflame flowers, Gilderoy was startled. He reacted by tossing the flowers.

The fire engulfed flowers landed on her desk, near students' paperwork. Octavia reacted quickly, using wandless magic toward the flowers. The flowers dropped into the trash bin near her desk and flicked her wrist again, extinguishing the flamed flowers.

Octavia eyes were immediately on Severus, about to glare at him, but held herself back from doing so when she saw the look of frustration upon his face. Her glare turn into a look of curiosity, wondering why Severus did such a thing to the flowers.

"I am sorry, Professor Lockhart, but I'm not one to celebrate Valentine's Day."

"Oh, but why not? You must have had many admirers."

Octavia wonder how Gilderoy would react if she told him the truth. That the man that he stood besides, Severus Snape was her ex and the reason why she never had admirers approached her on Valentine's Day. It was weird to stare between her ex and Gilderoy, thinking how her ex was listening to another man asking her to be her admirer.

She had been the one that broke off the engagement and ended the relationship between Severus and her since she could not be the second woman anymore. She would always care for Severus, caring enough to let him go, but she had a feeling that Severus still care for her in some sort of way, especially with his pyro demonstration with the flowers.

"Actually I didn't." Octavia said, not looking at Severus even though she could see his head snap in her direction.

She did not know what was making her to admit this, but she wanted to say the truth. She wanted Severus to understand what she had felt since he had never asked her about her feelings before.

"Oh, I see. You were with someone." Gilderoy snapped his fingers and then pointed at her.

"You could say that." Octavia answered.

In a twisted sort of way, Octavia was finding this amusing. She was wanting Severus to witness this whole conversation to show him what she was feeling all those years of being with him. In addition, wanting him to understand how he never did any sort of affectionate gifts for her on Valentine's Day or any day that would ask for romance between the two.

She could literally feel the hard glare on her.

"Did he shower you with gifts because I could out do him for a beautiful woman like you?"

The corner of her eyes, Octavia saw Severus tense up and his hands flexed near his pockets where his wand rested. Octavia knew this was getting to him.

"No, he didn't."

"No chocolate?"

"Nope, there was no chocolate. He wasn't one to shower me with anything for the holidays." Octavia said with a shrug of the shoulders.

The answer had caused Gilderoy's mouth to drop and Severus's jaws to flex. Severus dark eyes were glaring harshly on her. The vials in the cabinets around the classroom began to shake. Octavia shot Severus a, 'cut-it-out' look, knowing that he was letting his emotions take over his magical control.

"Oh well." Octavia said, picking up the quill to resume in correcting the students papers.

"So, let me be your Valentine and I'll show you what a man supposed to do with a woman as charming, smart and beautiful as you."

Octavia knew that if she was not present, Severus would had definitely blasted Gilderoy out of the window. There was tension in the classroom, but Gilderoy was oblivious to it while Octavia eyes flickered at Severus.

"I'm good. Now, if you don't mind Gilderoy, I have to finish this." Octavia pointed down at her students homework.

"Oh, well of course. But if you change your mind. You know where to find me." Gilderoy winked.

When Gilderoy turned away to begin to walk out of the classroom, he tripped and fell straight to his face.

A gasp escaped Octavia as she stood up from her seat with her hands pressed on top of her desk to peek over the desk. She watched as Gilderoy shot back up on his feet with an embarrassed laugh. Gilderoy pretended to pat invisible dust off of his attire before he cleared his throat and hightailed out of her classroom.

There was a dark grin on Severus lips as he was the one that tripped Gilderoy with a flick of his hand to cause a stone in the cobblestone floor to pop up. Another flicker of the wrist and the stone had sunk back down into the ground to level with the stone floor.

With Gilderoy gone, the classroom door slammed shut with a crack.

Octavia dropped back down on her seat where she almost jumped back out of it when Severus slammed his hands on top of her desk. He leaned forward across her desk to stare her down with a seething look.

"What the hell was that about?"

"What was what about?" Octavia asked innocently, looking back down to the papers, but her quill was ripped out of her hand.

A huff escaped her as she looked up at Severus to see that he wanted her full attention on him.

"About me never giving you anything when we were students." Severus shot at her, slamming her quill back on the desk and away from her hands.

"You didn't. It was more of an obligation to you then anything."

"Obligation? That's what you thought?"

"Yes, yes I did. You were obligated to get me something. I remember a time that you told me that you just got me a necklace because I wouldn't shut up about it." Octavia snapped at Severus, sitting back in her seat with her hands clenching the arms of the chair.

"When was that?" Severus scoffed with disbelief.

"Oh I don't know, how about when I turned sixteen and on my birthday that is what you told me. I only wore that necklace once then never wore it again because I felt that I never truly deserved it. You made me see it as just a piece of silver with a pearl hanging from it. There was no meaning behind it after the way you presented it to me." Octavia stood up from her chair, turning her back to him and walking over toward the plants to water them.

Octavia could feel the anger she had for Severus well up inside of her. She thought that she could control the emotions better; that she would get along with Severus for Cato, but that was harder than it look. With the way that he got angry with others conversation with her, and then he showed acts of kindness to her as if nothing had happened, Octavia was about to show him her dark side.

The dark side of Octavia wanted Severus to feel the pain that he put her through. The years of being the second best, or the backup. She felt that way into their relationship, but she stayed with him because she wanted to be with him. The amount of times that she had been emotionally and mentally hurt caused a dark side to form within her, and sometimes it would come out, such as now.

Severus stood there, staring at the back of her head as she was watering the plants. She wiggled her finger at Bubba, who peeked out from the leaves of the tree that he camouflaged in.

Octavia did not see the flinch across Severus face. She did not know that he began to have a flashback of his younger self doing exactly what she had said.

Severus began to search his mind, thinking of anything that he might had given her, or rather, showered her with gifts out of romantic affection, but he was drawing blank.

"I bet that you are trying to think of a good time yet coming up blank."

"I—I didn't think that our relationship was a fluke, Octavia. You have to know that." Severus said, swallowing harder than usual.

Octavia said nothing as she continued to water the plants, but soon set the pail aside. She walked over to Felix, who bowed his head and allowed her to pet his head, a soft thrill escaped from Felix.

Severus eyes stayed on her, but after nothing was said for a couple of seconds, Severus began to make his way toward the classroom door. It was there that he remembered something.

"What about the ring?" Severus asked lowly.

"You gave it to me after you found out she was getting married in a month. It wasn't a proposal either. It was slipped on my finger and I was obligated to be your fiancée. You didn't even ask. I simply said yes without the question."

The answer made Severus to shut his eyes, turning away to leave her classroom.

Back in the classroom, listening to Severus walk away, there were tears that slid down Octavia's cheeks. She hated being so cold when it came to the truth. When she was in that dark side, the truth would come out. The truth hurt her as much as it hurt him, but the truthful comments were indeed true.

As Severus walked through the hallways, he found himself thinking deeply about a time that he did something for Octavia where it was out of happiness and affection for her.

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 **Hi Everyone,**

 **Here was another chapter.**

 ** _***I would like to point out as of 12/7/17 I posted a POLL on my main page. It will only be up there for a short time. So, check it out and vote if you want to.***_**

 **I do understand that there was a turn toward the end of the chapter, but I wanted to show that it would not be easy sailing between these two. They have to pick up pieces, sharing their feelings with each other and try to put the pieces back together as a team.**

 **Please Review, Follow, and/or Favorite.**

 **Enjoy!**

 **Thank You!**


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter:** Ask Her

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 **…** **.. A Couple Weeks Later: …..**

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After the heated conversation with Severus in her classroom, Octavia and Severus had their awkward exchanges after that. They tried to go back to small talk, yet they were walking on eggshells around one another to try not to set off some sort of argument or disagreement between each other again.

When Valentine's Day came around, Octavia was bombarded by Cato and Isaac in her classroom.

"Where's the fire? What is going on? Shouldn't you two be at breakfast?"

"You have to see what Professor Lockhart did to the Great Hall." Cato said breathlessly as he grabbed Octavia by her right hand to begin leading her toward the Great Hall.

"Is it bad?"

"It's horrifying." Isaac said, shivering visibly.

"Come on, you two. How bad could Lockhart go with Valentine D—"She stop talking at the sight.

She stood in the Great Hall entrance with her mouth agape with her eyes beginning to widen.

"See." Cato mumbled, letting go of her hand as he wince at the bright pink.

The whole Great Hall was decorated to fit the Valentine's Day theme. The ceiling had been enchanted to have pink hearts falling. The banners were turn into bright pink and red with hearts and 'xoxo' appear across them. The food on the table was all in pink. Everything in the room got a pink and red makeover.

The sight of statue cupids that were flying around, singing love notes to students and singing love songs with high pitch tones was making Octavia to twitch.

"Too much pink." Octavia whispered as she began to make her way toward the staff table with a traumatized look set on her face.

Her eyes kept staring around at the decoration of the Great Hall as she lower herself in her seat, still not believing that this was happening.

"Gilderoy had really outdone himself." Severus said as he sat beside her.

"I'm surprised you're here in all this pink."

"I'm surprised myself." Severus mumbled as he picked up his drink then growled as he saw the liquid inside turn pink.

When a stone cupid statue appeared in front of Octavia, her eyes widen with horror in them.

"I have a message from Gilderoy Lockhart to the lovely Ms. Octavia Flamel." The small stone statue cupid said.

When the stone cupid statue open its mouth to sing, Octavia whipped her wand out and pointed the end right at the stone cupid statue with narrow eyes.

"You sing one word to me and you will become stone gravel that will be added to my walkway up to my house. So, I suggest you decide your fate and proceed with caution." Octavia growled with narrowed eyes.

The cupid gone wide eyes, and then flew off screaming.

"That is what I thought." Octavia mumbled, tucking her wand away.

There was a low chuckle to her right that made her to glance to her right. Severus was trying to hide his chuckling behind a napkin, but failing to do so. He set the napkin down to pick up a fork and knife in either hands to eat his breakfast while trying to ignore the vibrant colors around them.

"You do know Lockhart is throwing a dance tonight too. He managed to persuade Dumbledore to bring the Valentine's Day Dance back."

"Oh this gets better and better." Octavia muttered as she began to stack light pink heart shape pancakes onto her plate.

As Octavia was beginning to eat, a vase with a single flower appeared in front of her plate. Her eyebrow raise at the sight of the flower, but she collected herself right away. She shot a glare down the long table directly at Gilderoy, but saw he was in a conversation with Flitwick. Since Gilderoy couldn't be the culprit—since he can't multitask—Octavia's eyes were back on the light blue rose that sat in the vase. She continued to stare at the rose, but then realization struck her as she remembered where she saw a rose this color.

This time her eyes shot over to Severus.

"You don't have to do this." She whispered.

"Don't tell me what I can and can't do."

Octavia opened her mouth to say something in return, but she shut her mouth. Her eyes were back on the flower where she reached out with her right hand to brush her fingertips against one of the smooth light blue petals.

"You gave me one in a vase when I got an apprenticeship for training as a mediwitch." Octavia grinned, but it waver a little as she came to see that Severus did do something for her that he was not obligated to do.

Severus was glancing at Octavia in the corner of his eyes, watching the smile on her lips at the sight of the light blue rose. She kept touching the petals, and her whole expression was of happiness. The sight of her happiness began to make him feel good that he managed to bring that emotion to her.

"You don't have to prove yourself, Severus."

"Octavia can you please just shut it."

Octavia eyebrows shot up as she stared at Severus, who in return gave a smirk. She gave a small nod with a small grin, knowing he was trying to do right by her.

After breakfast, Octavia had the vest pressed against her chest. She left the Great Hall as quick as possible, not wanting anyone to question about the flower.

Severus grinned as he watched Octavia leave the Great Hall with the vase pressed closely to her, not wanting any harm to come to the delicate rose. The tiniest of grins slid on his lips as he did something right for Octavia.

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Throughout the day there had been a good amount of points being docked off from all four houses. There were also a considerable amount of detentions too. With the way that the students got all hormonal over each other due to this particular day, it made the students not pay much attention to the lessons in the classroom. There were a good amount of tardiness to class and there was a good amount of snogging going around throughout the castle hallways.

Octavia had decided last week that she would go along with the Valentines theme as apart of her lesson in class. For a special lesson, she was teaching about love potions and how to treat a patient that had been under the influence of any sort of love potions or items.

She was happy that the student found the subject interesting, especially on Valentine's Day. There had been a few giggles that erupted through the class when they learned how intense a love potion could get. It was also amusing when one of the students asked to try some, but Octavia quickly said no, and mentioned that there was enough hormones going around the school. The students laughed once again.

The students were sent off with homework that focus on the various love potions, and they had to write a twelve inch paper on the strongest love potion—Amortentia. The students had to explain the effects, and then explain, was it true love when someone drank it.

Octavia left an extra credit part for the students asking a question on whether love potions could potentially become true love. And can it help someone to become in love with the person after the effects wear off or was love potions a one and done deal, not being true love at all. The extra credit questions had the students bursting to find answers, and finding the extra credit question intriguing and the type of question where they could express their opinions without a wrong answer.

The seventh years would be the next lot of students that entered her classroom, but on particular days such as a Friday, the seventh years would not show up until after lunch. That gave Octavia enough time to set up the mannequins on the table. She put out love potions to use on the mannequins for the seventh year students. They would have to figure out how to treat someone under the various love potions abilities.

"It seems that you created quite the conversation amongst the sixth years." A familiar deep voice drawled from her classroom doorway.

Octavia paused in arranging the love potions from weakest to strongest on the table that she set up in front of the class near the chalkboard. Her eyes flicker to the doorway where Severus leaned against the doorway, eyeing her with a grin and his arms coming to cross over his chest.

"Did I?" Octavia grinned.

Of course she knew that the students were babbling about the extra credit. Those students would not stop talking as they left the classroom, discussing to each other about their opinions about the extra credit questions.

Octavia hoped that she would have both sixth and seventh years express their opinions about love potions and the effects when consumed. The extra credit was the one that she was looking most forward too.

"Indeed, and I even got a brave soul to ask me about making a love potion."

"I assume you told them no." Octavia replied, resting her hands on the table behind the arranged love potions while keeping her eyes on Severus.

"Of course."

A shake of her head and a grin slid onto her lips.

"That is the last thing we need when we already have enough hormonal teenagers running around." Severus told her.

Octavia shut her eyes as she thought about that statement. She nod with a wincing face as she could imagine how catastrophic that could end up. With love potions being slipped to the student body, Severus was right. There were already enough hormonal teenagers through the four houses, but to add a love potion to the mix, now that would end badly.

"True." Octavia open her eyes to flicker up to meet his stare.

The sound of the bell ringing made Severus to stand up straight from leaning against the doorway. It was lunch time making Severus eyes to flicker around her classroom until his eyes were back onto Octavia.

"Do you mind if I walk you to lunch?"

Octavia walked around the table and made way toward Severus with a tilt of her head. She was studying the way on his efforts to try holding a straight expression while keeping his eyes upon her.

"No, I do not mind." Octavia replied with a small grin as she came to a stop before him.

Shutting the classroom door behind her and a flick of the wand to lock it, Octavia walked alongside Severus down the hallways to head to the Great Hall.

As the two walked alongside one another, Severus was glancing down at her. He wanted to ask her if she would be going to the Valentine's Day ball tonight. And if she was going, would she be going with anyone. Even though Severus curiosity was burning inside of him, he would not ask her.

The two tried not to wince as they entered the Valentine's Day decorations that decorated Great Hall. The two sat down beside one another at the staff table where plates filled with lunch foods appeared. There was little conversation amongst the staff, all except Lockhart, who would not shut his mouth about everything Valentine's Day related.

When Severus was leaving the Great Hall, he was grabbed by the forearm and ripped away from everyone's sight. He snatched his arm back from his grabber, whirling on them to snap at them for this daring action. Although, Severus bit his tongue when he found himself stare into the silver blue eyes of Cato.

"What are you doing, Mr. Flamel?"

"Would you cut it out with the formal stuff? Seriously?" Cato replied with screwed up face that reminder Severus of himself.

Severus was a little surprise that no one connected the dots and pointed out the resemblance between Severus and Cato. If the two would to stand side by side with each other, it was clear that the two of them were related. But then again, Cato did get Octavia's eye shape, eye color and nose, which Severus was thankful for the latter.

"What do you want then?"

"I was wondering if you asked mom to the ball tonight."

Rapidly blinking, Severus open his mouth to reply, but found nothing was processing in his mind to come out of his mouth. He shut his mouth which caused Cato to sigh and shake his head. Severus speechlessness said enough for Cato.

"Listen, I have a feeling that you never truly asked her to a dance or even dance with her."

"How do…"

"Because growing up, the stories she told me about you, I could see that she lied about how you always danced with her. I'm pretty good with picking up a lie, especially when her voice lowered through her explanation." Cato answered, crossing his arms over his chest as he continue to give Severus a sharp glare.

"You want me to ask her? If you hadn't noticed, I am not one to go to these events."

"And if you hadn't noticed, you been eyeing her since she arrived here. Stop trying to uphold your reputation of being the dungeon bat and being miserable all the time. Ask her. Its sort of obvious with how you are actually trying to make it up to her… which is a bit surprising." Cato mumbled the last part to himself.

Severus eyes narrowed on Cato as he caught the last part of Cato comment.

"And why did you say it like that?" Severus snapped.

"Because you didn't show appreciation to her back then…"

"Stop yourself right there."

"Well, I am just telling you. If you want to continue making it up to her, ask her to dance. Even if it's not at the ball. Just dance." Cato walked around Severus to head off to class.

"Is that what she really wants?"

"It is what she always wanted." Cato said over his shoulder as he continue to walk away.

Severus stood back to watch the back of Cato walk away. He looked away once Cato was gone from his view to stare at the ground. He knew that what Cato said was true. There was no argument there.

Looking up, Severus began to make his way into the direction of his classrooms, not even paying attention to students actions throughout the hallways where he would usually dock points off. He was too deep in thinking about Octavia and a single dance.

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 **Hi Everyone,**

 **Here was a new chapter.**

 **Please Review, Favorite, and/or Follow.**

 **Enjoy!**

 **Thank You!**


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter:** What Has to be Done to be Right

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The Valentine's Day Dance was an event where Octavia prayed to Merlin that Dumbledore would not uphold anymore for the future years to come.

The Great Hall was decorated in even more pink and red than it had been during the daytime. Most of the population of students were having a good time and were happy to attend an event where they could enjoy a stress free time without schoolwork, but instead, have a fun time.

Octavia watched many students make puppy love eyes over each other or there were a few students who had jealousy in their eyes when they saw their crush with someone else. She could only imagine later on tonight when she would need to monitor the hallways, how many students will be out and about.

Offering to be a chaperone for tonight was becoming annoying to Octavia. It was not the fact that the students would sometimes get a bit hands on with each other or try to sneak off to the hallways or outside, but rather a certain idiot known as Lockhart constantly bugged her.

The amount of times Lockhart came toward her for a dance, offering her chocolates or actually trying to grab her hand, she lost count. She found herself hiding away in the mass of students or she sometimes hid behind the tables piled up with food.

Dressed in a red dress, she thought she could be able to blend in with the students, but she stuck out. She stuck out due to being taller than most of the students and obviously being a grown woman.

But the night wasn't a total dreadful moment for Octavia.

A small smile would come onto Octavia's glossy lips at the sight of either Cato or Isaac being asked to dance with a few different girls. To Octavia, it was cute to see Cato blushing and not knowing what to do, but found himself tensely dancing before loosing up. Isaac was the same way.

The thought of Cato and Isaac got Octavia to search for them, soon finding them by a chocolate fountain with a few of the Gryffindor quidditch team members. With Isaac being Cato's best friend, Octavia noted many Gryffindor had started to lighten up to Isaac, even if Isaac was a part of the Slytherin House.

As Octavia looked away from the two teenage boys, her eyes came to make connection with Lockhart. He got his usual stupid wide smile on his lips and he began to make his way toward her, cutting through students on the dance floor and not caring he was shoving them aside.

With quick steps, Octavia dashed away, and bent down to hide her height behind students. In this type of situation, she really wished she had an invisibility cloak to hide away.

A hand clamped around her left wrist and a small screech escaped her as she was ripped out of the Great Hall. She did not realize she had been closely near staff door, which was behind the stage where the faculty and staff sat.

The door shut behind her unknown captor and her. It was dark through the stone hallways that led out toward another door that entered into the hallways.

"Let me go."

Octavia gone to claw their hand, but stopped when they open the door to allow the light outside the hallways to light up around her. The candlelights showed it was Severus as her captor.

"What are you doing? Where are you taking me?"

"Shush."

"Did you just shush me?" Octavia mouth dropped as Severus continued to lead her down the hallway.

They gone around twist and turns of the hallways until they came to a part of the castle where they were away from everything where students would go—classrooms, dorm rooms and faculty and staff rooms. They were on the other side of the castle.

There was an old looking thick wood door where Severus stepped up to stand in front of it. With a wave of his hand, the door unlatched and slowly creaked open.

"I never saw this room before." Octavia whispered.

The room was small, but what made it unique was the roundness of the ceiling and a section of a wall which was all windows. It reminded her of a greenhouse, but there were no flowers around. Instead, there was a love seat against the wall by the old wooden door they walked through. A small round table on the left side of the love seat with a round burgundy red rug in the center of the room. Then an old record player in the corner, and out of the way.

"I came across it a few years ago. It is good to come here to have privacy." Severus told her in a low tone.

Octavia stepped away from Severus to stand in the center of the room, turning in a circle to take in the simpleness of the room. Although Octavia found this room as a good spot to hide away and to get away from everything outside of the room. Her eyes flicker up toward the windows to stare at the night sky, seeing it was a half moon tonight.

Slowly, Octavia lowered her head as she turned to stare directly Severus with curious eyes, wondering why he brought her to this location.

With a wave of his right hand, the record player began to play. Octavia eyes glanced over at the record player then her eyes settle back on him with raised eyebrows. Severus lowered his hand before he held his left hand out to her.

"May I have this dance?"

The question thrown Octavia off as she did not expect Severus to do this. To her, this was unlike him, but seeing how he seem to be uncomfortable doing so, she knew that he was trying.

Her suspense made Severus to start lowering his hand, thinking how this was not a good idea, but when Octavia took a step forward, laying her hand in his, Severus felt himself stand a bit taller.

Pulling her toward him, one hand rested against her hip and the other held her hand. Slowly, they began to move in a small circle around the room, enjoying this private moment.

Octavia felt herself being pulled a bit closer to the point that she made herself to take another step closer to Severus, feeling their chest brushing against each other whenever they make a certain move. Severus head bent down, his hair brushing against the side of her face as his mouth came by her ear.

"You look...beautiful tonight." Severus had paused in the sentence to swallow hard, not used to be pleasant.

Yet this was Octavia.

No response came from Octavia, but Severus did catch a small hint of a grin on her lips before it faded away.

Octavia knew that Severus was trying to be polite and to be better to her. She was shocked that he would do such a thing such as this, but maybe the sight of Cato and her again, it might had made him realize the family he could have.

"I don't want us to be mad at each other forever, Octavia." Severus admitted lowly, wanting the tension between them to clear up.

One of her hands were resting on his chest seem to tighten up against his chest. His eyes stayed on her face.

"It's hard to let it go."

Severus bowed his head, knowing that it was true. What happened in the past brought nothing but pain.

"How about we try to ease it up, not overcome it?" Severus asked, lifting his head slightly up to gaze into her eyes that were staring up at him now.

"This particular pain is strong. When you want something, but it's not returned to you in the manner you want…You know that feeling, Severus, it's just not aimed toward me." Octavia whispered.

The dancing came to a stop after the comment Octavia made. She slowly pulled away from him to step over to the windows to stare out at the Forbidden Forest and the night sky. She could feel the familiar emotions start to well up in her.

Severus stared down at the ground, realizing what she was pointing out. The topic that destroyed their relationship in the first place. His eyes flicker up to stare at her back, but also, he realized she gave him a clue that she was still in love with him.

"Octavia...all these years and you still…" He couldn't find himself to finish the sentence as his throat felt as if it was closing up with emotions that he was not used to feeling.

"Yes, and trust me, I tried getting over you. Yet I couldn't do it. I hated that I couldn't do it. I believe those hurtful memories left some sort of scars to always remember you."

Swallowing hard, Severus moved closer to her, but she turned on the heels of her feet to swiftly walk toward the door. She opened the door, but stopped in the doorway when Severus whispered her name.

"As I told you before, Octavia, our relationship was not a fluke." Severus told her lowly.

For a few seconds, Octavia stood there with her back turned to him. Her hands were clenching on her sides before unclenching. She took in a deep inhale then exhale out of her mouth to keep herself strong, and to not let emotions take over her.

"I do not like being second, Severus. When the day comes where I am not second to you, come find me." Octavia said before she left the room.

Severus stared at the spot where Octavia once stood. Every comment she said was burned into his mind. It also felt as if he was stabbed with a hot poker every time they brought up their past together. How much he truly hurt her, or rather, how he was still hurting her.

A flick of the wrist the music stopped and Severus stormed off to head back to the dungeons to get himself a glass of Firewhiskey.

When Severus walked through his classroom to head toward the office, he paused as he sensed a presence. One that stood behind him. Turning around, Severus stared to see Cato in the middle of the classroom, staring right back at him.

"Yes?" Severus turned away, resuming in heading into his office with Cato following.

"It didn't go well, did it?"

"How would you know?"

"You are back early." Cato pointed out as he stared around the office before his eyes settle on Severus opening up a cabinet to pull out Firewhiskey.

"Do you expect me to tell you about this?"

"Don't you think I should know? I mean, I have been with her in the years you weren't." Cato said as he walked over to stand before Severus desk as Severus sat down behind it.

Severus eyed Cato across from him. He turned his eyes away to stare down at the Firewhiskey in the glass bottle. Tilts of the wrist, Severus watched the amber gold liquid swirl around. Bringing his eyes off the drink, Severus stared at Cato again. He knew that Cato was right and Cato most likely got answers out of his mother growing up, especially wanting to know about Severus.

"She stills loves me."

"Yeah, she does." Cato nodded, knowing that.

Severus brought the drink to his lips, taking a big gulp to feel the burning effect go down.

"Did you ever love my mother?"

"Of course." Severus slammed the glass down.

"Then what happened?" Cato spread his arms out, staring at Severus with a questionable look.

"She pointed out how I continue to put her second."

A snort came from Cato and he dropped his arms to his sides. Severus narrowed his eyes on Cato, wondering why the sudden dry snort from the teenager. Severus almost cringed at how much Cato acted and sometimes looked like him whenever Cato made a certain expression.

"What?" Severus hissed.

"It's funny, you know. You pin after someone you can't have and mom pins after you, which she feels like she will never have. In a way, you two are in the same boat, just you are pining after a dead woman, who was married, while you have a woman giving you love and even a son. This would be a very good heartbreaking romance novel." Cato explained, being blunt and honest, not holding anything about.

As Cato entered his teens, he began to become observant. He was beginning to understand more about emotions and what was right or wrong. Seeing his mother's emotions throughout the years, Cato was beginning to understand them.

Having Octavia and his son express such an honest explanation, Severus felt himself slowly sit back in his seat. He stared at Cato, seeing how the boy definitely knew what was going on. That Cato knew about the whole story.

"How do you know this much?"

"Gossip with her friends back in America, plus, her diary." Cato answered with a shrug of his shoulders.

"Seriously, if you love my mother, why not put her first. She's actually here before you and wants you back. Though you got a lot to make up." Cato said.

"It's not that easy."

"Why the bloody hell not?"

"Language!" Severus snapped, scowling his son.

Once again, Cato made a face that reminded Severus of himself. Cato turned his back to Severus to walk out of the office, but turn back around to stare straight at Severus with a glare.

"You wouldn't understand." Severus shook his head, staring down at his drink.

"No, I think you just don't want to try. You rather give up. Give her up. Give me up."

Severus eyes snapped up from his drink to stare at Cato, hearing the emotions building up in his voice. Severus felt himself standing up as he saw Cato eyes glistening. Eyes like his mother's, Severus felt as if he was staring into her tear filled eyes too.

"Why don't you want us?" Cato whispered, bowing his head.

"Cato…" Severus swallowed hard, feeling a dagger stabbing straight through his heart at the pain filled in the teenager's voice.

Cato whirled around and ran out of the office.

"Cato!" Severus yelled, running after him.

The classroom door slammed shut causing Severus to wave his hand to open it up as he ran out. He looked up and down the hallway, seeing not a sign of Cato. Breathing heavily, Severus turn back to his classroom, slamming the door shut behind him.

Instead of going back to his office, Severus found himself dropping down on a bench in the classroom, staring at the stone floors. His hands coming up to run through his hair, clenching his hair as he thought about the family he could have, but he was being held back by one thing.

"Why can't I let go?" Severus croaked out, tears pricking his dark eyes.

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 **Hi Everyone,**

 **Here was a new chapter.**

 **Please Review, Favorite, and/or Follow!**

 **I feel a bit bad for Severus, but I wanted to show the pain Octavia had been going through throughout the years, and also Cato, who wants a father and to see his mother happy. She is someone who can hold a grudge for a while, and does not easily forgive those who immensely hurt her.**

 **Thank You!**


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter:** Promises and Truths Revealed

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 **…** **.. A Week Later: …..**

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Another student was brought to the hospital wing petrified.

Octavia had been brewing mandrake restorative draughts to help with the petrifying students. With the way students were becoming petrified, specifically muggle-borns, Octavia knew the school will be put under investigation with a potential to be shut down until this issue was resolve.

A week had passed since the Valentine's Day Dance. The night that Severus asked her to dance, but once again, painful past memories were brought up. The day after that, Octavia noted how quiet Cato had been. Isaac simply told Octavia that Cato told him that he didn't want to talk about it. Some reason, Octavia had a funny feeling Cato found out about that night.

"Mom?"

Octavia lifted her head up from the cauldron where she brewed to look over to stare over at Cato.

"Yes?" Her eyes flicker back to the draught she was almost done with.

"Can I have this signed? It's the Hogsmeade permission form. I forgot to hand it to you." Cato held it up.

Octavia took the parchment from him and walked over to her desk, pulling out a quill to sign her signature across the bottom. Setting the quill down, waving the paper to let the ink dry quickly, she turn around to face Cato and held the permission form out to him.

Cato reached out to take the parchment back, but Octavia held onto it. His eyes flicker up to meet hers.

"Is everything all right?"

"Yep. Everything is fine."

Her eyes narrowed on him making Cato to give her a small grin. She made a hum sound before letting go of the parchment to let him take it.

"Be safe. Also, could you—"

"Get you some peppermint toads and chocolate frogs." Cato cut her off to say.

"Smart boy." Octavia winked making Cato to smirk before he left her classroom.

Twenty more minutes, the first stage of the mandrake restorative draught was completed. Octavia would need to let it simmer a good while before she would start the next stage on it. For now, she would go up to Madame Pomfrey to see if she would need any help in the hospital wing.

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Octavia was walking with a small crate filled with a couple potions and was walking in the direction of the hospital wing.

"You are watching her again, Severus."

Severus whirled around to face Dumbledore, who stood there with a twinkle in his light blue eyes. Severus made a face before he turned halfway around to watch Octavia walk out into the courtyard as a shortcut to get to her location quicker.

"Is there something you need, headmaster?"

"No, but I think I can say something worth considering."

"What's that?" Severus muttered as he went back to watch Octavia from behind a pillar.

"Remember the promise you made to me long ago, well, I do not want you to put that front and center before the family you could have right now."

Severus eyes shot over to Dumbledore, not believe what the old man said.

"I do want to see you happy, Severus. The promise can still be kept, and you can have a family at the same time. You can continue to do what you promised while being a family man."

Severus looked back around the pillar to stare at Octavia, who was crossing the doorway to enter the castle.

"Does she know about the second promise you made to me that tragic night? The one about also protecting Cato and her, to bring them to America to keep them safe."

"No." Severus whispered, eyes shutting as he was remembering that night where he made Dumbledore make two promises.

"It might make her to see the truth that you do care about her more than she thinks."

Severus bowed his head as he let Dumbledore words sink in.

"Did you ever love her?" Dumbledore asked lowly.

The question was going to come from someone soon, and Severus knew he would need to answer it truthfully or he would never stop being bugged about it. He took in a deep inhale and then exhale from his nose before he answered.

"When we graduated, I came to my senses one day that I was developing love for her. I realized how much she put into our relationship, especially to make me happy. It was also when I realized that I didn't deserve her. I had taken advantage of what she would give me with nothing for her in return." Severus swallowed hard as he explained.

Severus fists curled up underneath his robes. He could not bring his dark eyes up to look at Dumbledore. Severus knew if he looked up, Dumbledore would be staring at him with pity or concern. It made Severus to believe that he did not deserve those emotions. Octavia was the one to deserve them for loving a man who would not return the favor for years.

"You began to love her when you came to the realization of her devotion to you. You saw yourself falling in love again. It scared you." Dumbledore said.

Severus nodded his head, staring down at the courtyard where a group of students were grouping up and getting ready to head off to Hogsmeade. Severus eyes landed on Cato, who was laughing at something Isaac said.

"I would take what is in front of you, Severus. You can continue to do what you must when the times comes to be a spy again, but you should embrace the opportunity before you. Tell Octavia the truth. I believe you will see everything in a new view if you did."

There was some sort of feeling welling up inside of Severus as he was continuing to watch Cato, even as Dumbledore patted Severus on the shoulder and walked away. Severus watched Cato until he left the courtyard before he made a move. Severus whirled on the heels of his dragon hide boots and walked with long strides to go find a certain witch.

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After dropping off the draughts and having a pleasant conversation with Madam Pomfrey, Octavia was making her way outside to go head toward the Black Lake. With a sunny day in late February, and the temperature was not too cold, Octavia decided to get some fresh air.

Before Octavia could make it to the Black Lake, a hand wrapped around her wrist and started to drag her in the direction of the Forbidden Forest. She went to open her mouth to tell whoever off, but stopped herself when she saw it was Severus.

"What are you doing?"

"We need to talk."

Octavia snapped her mouth shut, not knowing what to say in this sort of situation. She knew Severus was dragging her into the Forbidden Forest for privacy since no students were allow to enter. Although for such an area for privacy, Octavia had a feeling this conversation would be important.

The two got further into the Forbidden Forest, but came to a stop nearby a small stream. Severus let go of her wrist and he began to pace back and forth in front of her. Octavia stood back, following him going back and forth with her eyes. She could see the tension throughout his whole body. There were a couple of times he paused and faced her, looking ready to talk but then shake his head and he was back to pacing.

"Severus, would you stop the pacing. You are giving me get a headache." Octavia snapped, which caused him to stop and sharply turn toward her.

"What is the reason for you dragging me into the Forbidden Forest?" Octavia asked, crossing her arms over her chest and staring at him with raise eyebrows.

Octavia stared at Severus as he appeared to be fighting with himself. Slowly, she uncrossed her arms, staring at him with concern now. Octavia found it unlike Severus to be hesitant when it came to telling someone information. He was quick with responses and blunt; thus, to see him unsure about what to say was unusual for him.

"I—"

"Severus?" Octavia stepped toward him.

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Severus could not believe how much he sound like an idiot. He could not spit it out. He could not find himself to tell Octavia that he made Dumbledore to not just protect Lily, but also, to protect Octavia and Cato. He found it hard to express what he had felt that night when he found out the Dark Lord wanted to go after Octavia. Although he immediately knew to protect Octavia and Cato.

As he looked at her, seeing her show concern for him, Severus swallowed a little harder. He was angry at himself for not simply blurting out the truth. He wanted to shout to her that he found out the plans of the Dark Lord for her and he was the one to suggest to Dumbledore to get Cato and her out with a portkey to America. It was him, Severus Snape that was the one to protect Cato and her that night, not the work of Dumbledore.

Yet, it was as if his past promises to Dumbledore that was holding Severus back from telling Octavia the truth. Severus wanted to amend their bond, but he knew in the near future that Dumbledore would remind Severus of the promise. Severus knew it would probably upset and hurt Octavia again, and he did not want that to happen.

A small growl of frustration escaped him as he knew that he sound selfish, but he could not see the pain go through Octavia again. Then again, he began to believe that no matter what was to happen in the future, it would come down to one of them becoming hurt in some way.

"Never mind."

"Never mind? You brought me out here like your arse was on fire to tell me nothing. Bullshit."

Severus head shot up and he stared at Octavia with shock. He could see the rage in her silver blue eyes, but also hurt. He cursed himself in his head as he found himself always managing to mess it up when it comes to her. He tried not to as he knew Octavia deserved so much respect, especially what she gone through with him and stuck by him for all those years.

There was one thing Severus surely knew about Octavia, and that was to not upset her. He sworn her silver blue eyes would glow as if fire was lit in them. To see her becoming upset now, Severus had to think of something quick. His mind raced and he blurted out the first thing that came to the forefront of his mind.

"I know why Cato is mad."

The tension in her body lightened up a bit, but Severus could tell she was ready to pounce on him, wanting to know more.

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Octavia knew he wanted to tell her something different, and not the fact that he knew the reason behind Cato's upset state. Octavia knew Severus changed the conversation away from the truth. She knew it, especially with how hesitant he was a few moments ago. Now, he stood tall as if he was not pacing back and forth moments ago with an unsure expression.

"You had something to do with it?" Octavia said slowly with narrowed eyes.

"Yes."

"What did you do?" Octavia rested her hands on her hips.

"He followed me back to my personal studies to confront me after the dance."

"Oh? Why would he do that?"

"He knew about my plans."

"Why would he kn—He wanted you to ask me, didn't he?" Octavia said, her voice lowering toward the last part.

"Seems like he wants us to fix things." Severus said and looked away, staring off into a dark section of the forest.

Octavia stared at Severus before she tilted her head back to stare up through the small openings in the tree tops to stare at the blue sky. She knew Cato did not want Severus and her to be down each other throats all the time. She knew Cato wanted to see her happy, but also, to not see her pinning with sadness over Severus anymore.

A small smile could not help but travel onto Octavia's lips. Cato always brought her surprise with his actions, but also, he was a very caring individual who only wanted the best for someone and to see them happy.

"What is it?" Severus voice pulled her away from view of the sky to stare at him.

"He has a heart of gold more so than myself."

"Cato?"

"Yes." Octavia whispered as she bowed her head a little, smiling.

There was a moment of silence between Severus and her. Octavia looked up a little as she heard the sound of footsteps coming toward her. Her head lifted up to stare at Severus as he came to a halt before her, leaving about five feet between them.

"He did learn from the best." Severus said.

Before Octavia could express the shock across her face, Severus whirled around on the heel of his boots and began to walk back in the direction they came from earlier. His cloak bellowing behind him in a dramatic flare. She could see why the students call him a dungeon bat.

Realizing Severus was about to leave her in the forest, she quickly gone after him. Although she could not believe his comment. It was not the first time that he complimented her with a soft, truthful tone. Recently, he has been doing this toward her. She knew he was trying. But she could not accept the fact he was pinning after _her_. Octavia felt selfish, yet she wanted to know the unconditional and devoted love that she knew and witness from Severus. She wanted to know what it felt like by him.

Octavia shook her head, which drew Severus attention on her.

"What is wrong?"

"Nothing, simply thinking how to approach Cato."

"I will speak to him."

"You?" Octavia blurted out with raised eyebrows.

"Yes, I will speak with him." Severus repeated with a bit of dryness, showing he was a bit offended by her tone.

"Okay, but if he gets mad, don't be too hard on him."

"I won't. Do not worry." Severus said as Octavia and he walked out of the Forbidden Forest together with the castle now in their sight.

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 **…** **..**

 **Hi Everyone,**

 **Here was a new chapter!**

 **Please Review, Favorite, and/or Follow!**

 **Enjoy!**

 **Thank You!**


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter:** Chat with Cato

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The beginning of a new week was where most students go their points docked off more so than ever by Severus. It was a good handful of students, who would get points docked off because the students still had their heads in the clouds from Hogsmeade weekend.

The third years had potions fourth period before lunch, and Severus knew it was the perfect opportunity to talk with Cato. Severus did not do it during the weekend because he had ended up assisting Octavia with the process of more mandrake restorative draughts since two more students were petrified over the weekend.

As Severus walked down the aisles of desk, observing the paired off students cauldrons. The class was brewing an antidote to uncommon poisons, and as he walked around the classroom the scowl on his face deepen. Severus noted half of the students, even when they were in pairs, were not following the correct direction. Severus knew they would not be getting nice marks. When he continued to walk around the classroom, and coming to pass Cato and Isaac table, he saw the two boys were deeply engross with their work. It was clear the two worked well together and by their potions, Severus could see the two were on the right track and they clearly knew what they were doing.

At the moment, both Cato and Isaac have the highest marks in potions for their grade—Cato for Gryffindor and Isaac for Slytherin. Whenever Cato perfected a potion and passed it in, Severus held back a smug smirk at the fact Cato was one of his top students in potions.

When the bell ranged, everyone bottled their work up and then packed their items up. Half of the students came up with dreadful looks as they hesitantly handed Severus their vials. Others quickly handed the vials to him and high-tailed out of the classroom.

Cato stepped forward to hand the vial over, which Severus looked at him with a blank expression while he took the vial.

"Mr. Flamel, stay here for a moment."

For a split second, Cato tensed up in his spot, but then he gave a small nod. He walked back to his desk to pack up the rest of his items. Isaac looked at Cato with raised eyebrows, curious about what was going on.

"I'll see you later."

"Okay."

Once everyone was gone from the classroom, except Cato and Severus, Severus gave a flick of his hand and the classroom door shut. Cato eyes flickered to the back of the room to stare at the closed door before his eyes came to settle back on Severus with a questionable gaze.

"Professor, I will be late for the next class."

"It is lunch after this Cato."

"Then I will be late for lunch."

"Okay, enough with the nonsense." Severus said firmly as he stood up from behind his desk and stepped around it.

Cato stood in the aisle of desks, staring at Severus coming toward him. Severus came to a halt a few feet from Cato to stare slightly down at him.

"Why am I here?"

"Your mother mentioned to me about you not being yourself since Valentine's Day, and I understood why." Severus clasped his hands behind his back as he continued to stare at Cato with a raised eyebrows.

Cato right hand clenched the strap of his messenger bag over his right shoulder. He turned his head away from Severus as he knew his attitude and reaction on that day would be brought up. However, Cato did not expect Severus to be the one to confront him about it.

"I am fine. Can I go now?"

"No, you may not. I told your mother I would have a talk with you."

"You two actually had a talk." Cato scoffed with a shake of his head in disbelief.

"As a matter fact, yes, we did." Severus replied, his eyes narrowing at the fact Cato would not look at him.

"Really? How that go?" Cato mumbled, bowing his head a bit with his eyes staring at the floor.

Severus swallowed a bit harder than usual. He felt his throat burn a bit as he thought back to the conversation with Octavia, and how he could not find it in himself to tell her the truth. Severus's tongue moved around in his mouth as he knew that he had to fix the relationship between Octavia and himself because seeing the way Cato was upset about the riff between his parents, Severus got a horrible taste in his mouth. He did not like to see Cato in this way, especially knowing how well liked Cato was by the other professors due to his kindhearted personality. Severus found himself not wanting to have a bad relationship with Cato. It reminded Severus too much of his horrible relationship with his father, and Severus did not want to be anything like his father.

"We talked, even though she does not fully trust me." Severus admitted.

After Octavia and he walked back to the castle that day from the Forbidden Forest, Severus had asked her about finding a common ground, and also try talking to each other normally without going for each throats every time they cross paths. Octavia agreed a little, but made sure to remind Severus she was still upset with him before she walked away from him.

"Are you two ever going to have a normal relationship again?"

"I do not know."

"Do you want to?" Cato asked slowly.

"In what way are you suggesting?" Severus questioned, eyes narrowing as he found Cato question had a hidden meaning.

"Maybe a friendship status or rekindle what you had back then. Unless you did not want a relationship back then, so now you are trying to turn your back."

"Cato." Severus mumbled and closed his eyes.

Severus could not find it in himself to simply get out to Cato that Octavia meant a lot back then and she still does now. He wanted to tell Cato that it was him, and his past history which made him to hesitate when it comes to keeping a solid relationship. His eyes opened back up, seeing Cato moving unsteadily on his feet.

"I am going to admit to you Cato that I am not used to this whole field of fatherhood. Hell, I am not nice in general. However, what you said the other night, I do not want you to think that I gave up on your mother and you. Do not ever think that." Severus said firmly for Cato to understand how serious he was.

"You knew about us, so why didn't you come for us." Cato said with his tone raising.

Severus felt as if he was staring in Octavia's eyes. Cato's eyes matched the color of Octavia eyes, and as Cato had a fierce, sharp look on his face, Severus felt as if he was being glared at by not just Cato, but Octavia too.

With the way Cato voice was raising and he was glaring, Severus knew he could not let this conversation go down hill. He felt the familiar burning in his throat to hold back from blurting out anything cruel, but what came out of his mouth was not cruel. It was the truth.

"Because I am the one that sent your mother and you to safety, believing you two deserve to have a better life." Severus blurted out.

The moment the sentence came out of his mouth and ended, Severus realized what he had done. He cursed underneath his breath and turned away from Cato, not believing he admitted that out loud. When Severus heard a soft 'what' from behind, slowly Severus turned around to stare at a shock Cato.

"So, you did care." Cato whispered.

"I always did, still do. Even if I am horrible at expressing it." Severus mumbled.

Severus stepped closer to Cato, reaching out to rest a hand on Cato's right shoulder.

"But you can't tell your mother." Severus said, shaking Cato's shoulder a little.

"What? Why not?"

"I did not tell her the truth. I need it to come from me." Severus said with narrowed eyes on Cato.

He wanted the boy to understand that it was his decision to tell Octavia. Severus wanted the truth to come from him, not their son. That sort of conversation, Severus felt he was the one obligated to have with Octavia.

For a few seconds, Severus saw how hesitant Cato was about this. But soon, much to Severus relief, Cato gave a small nod before another more firmer nod followed.

"Okay." Cato nodded once more.

The tension in the room began lighting up, and the father-son stood in silence in front of each other. Cato was the first to look away, and he started to make his way toward the classroom door. His mouth was open, most likely to say about heading to lunch, but his mouth shut when Severus stopped him with a hand on his shoulder.

"I truly do care for you Cato and your mother. Don't you ever think I do not care because I do." Severus said, and dropped his hand off of Cato's shoulder.

Cato turned halfway back around to stare at Severus with a bit of shock. His mouth was a little agape, but he shut his mouth quickly to hide his shock emotion away. He still could not believe Severus even had enough courage in him to admit this, especially since it was an emotional moment. Cato could not picture Severus being the emotional type.

"If—if anything is ever wrong, you can come to me Cato."

Another nod from Cato, and he held back surprise once again due to Severus unusual actions. Cato had a feeling he would need to get use to this type of Severus showing up once and in a while.

As for Severus, he held himself back from performing legilimency on Cato to see what the teenager was thinking. Even though Cato had been quick to hide his emotions, Severus caught enough. He knew Cato was shocked, and Severus could not blame him. Severus was a bit shock himself about how normal and calm he was about this.

Severus waved his hand toward the classroom door, which swung open.

Cato glanced at the door before he looked back at Severus with a small grin. Cato walked out of the classroom, leaving Severus behind in the middle of the classroom.

A deep exhale blew out of Severus nose as he realize he was finally getting somewhere with creating a father-son relationship with Cato. Severus knew there will be a lot of work he would need to do, and also, making up a relationship with both Cato and Octavia. He did feel ready to take the challenge and hopefully the outcome will be a good one.

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 **The Next Day**

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Another petrified student turned up.

Word got out about the petrified students, and immediately the attention of the Board committee and the Ministry were drawn. The safety of the school was becoming very serious to the point the school could be shut down.

With gossip going around about the school shutting down, Dumbledore called a mandatory faculty and staff meeting to discuss about the future of Hogwarts. The meeting topic was about new rules being set up, which everyone knew the students will not be happy about. However, the new rules were for their safety. Once the meeting was done, it was up for the head of the houses to discuss the new rules to their houses.

"You talked to Cato?" Octavia asked Severus as she walked alongside him.

"Yes." Severus nodded.

After the dismissal of the meeting, the two walked out of the staff room together. The new rules were echoing in their heads since Dumbledore repeated them quite a few times. The rules being that Qudditch was canceled for the rest of the school year, students need to be back in their house common rooms by a certain time, and the professor will now be escorting the students to their classes.

Octavia did not pester Severus anymore about his conversation with Cato, but she knew it was successful because Cato was back to his normal self, and not moping around or being unlike his smiling self. Severus was the type who would tell someone only if he want them to know. Therefore, Octavia would not push him into telling her about his conversation with Cato.

"Do we have any clue about what the hell is going on?" Octavia asked Severus, glancing around them to see no one else was in the hallway.

"No clue, but if I hear Lockhart mention one more of his idiotic adventure moments, I might hex him."

"I think all of us want to hex him." Octavia chuckled.

At the flight of stairs, it was were they would split up and go their own paths. Octavia's bedroom was located near her classroom up a few floor levels and Severus's bedroom was in the dungeons by the Slytherin house. The two came to a pause and faced one another.

"See you tomorrow morning at breakfast."

"Indeed." Severus nodded.

With a small grin, Octavia turned on the heel of her shoes and took the first step up on the stone staircase.

"Octavia."

Octavia turned on the steps, staring slightly down at Severus with raised eyebrow.

"Are we still going to make pepperup and blood replenishing potions tomorrow for Madam Pomfrey?" Severus asked.

It was no doubt Severus knew the answer, but he found himself not wanting to end their conversation. Or rather, he did not want to walk away from her just yet.

"Yes. In the dungeons after we escort the students back to their common rooms?"

"Yes."

"Okay, well good night Severus." Octavia replied, turning away and resume walking up the flight of moving stairs.

"Good night, Octavia." Severus whispered as he watched her climb up the stairs and disappeared when the many staircases moved.

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 **…** **..**

 **Hi Everyone,**

 **Here was a new chapter.**

 **Please Review, Favorite, and/or Follow!**

 **Enjoy.**

 **Thank You!**


	14. Chapter 14

**Chapter:** A Headache?

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 **A Couple Nights Later**

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Something did not sit well with Cato.

He had snapped awake close to midnight having this weird urge to walk through the hallways of the castle. Yet at the same time, he began to get the beginning of a headache.

Knowing that if he got caught, he will get a lot of points docked off and detention, Cato still dared to go out of the Gryffindor tower.

Twist and turns down the stairs and through the hallways, Cato clenched his wand in his right hand with lumos lighting up his way.

His head felt as if it was pulsing causing him to grab it with his left hand. He thought about walking to his mother's room to ask her to help him with this sudden migraine of a headache that came out of nowhere.

As Cato made way through the hallway, he paused as he realized that he was near the bathroom where Moaning Myrtle lived. As he went to resume walking, there was a weird sound. It sounded as if someone was dragging a heavy quilt across the cobblestone floor.

Cato whirled around with his wand pointed, but he saw nothing behind him.

He hissed as his headache gone from pulsing to splitting. It made him groan. He rested his head against the stone wall, groaning a little in relief at the coolness of the stone wall. But at the same time, his eyes snapped open when he heard the brushing sound again, but this time it was coming from within the walls.

Curiosity made Cato walk along the wall, his left hand gliding against the stones. He paused and pressed his ear against the wall again, listening. But the brushing sound gone distant than it vanished.

"What the heck was that?" Cato muttered with his eyes closed.

Reopening his eyes, Cato stood up straight and started his way toward his mother's bedroom. Thought as he turned a corner, he felt a cool presence behind him. His head hurting more and this time he heard a whisper of someone's voice. It caused Cato to whirl around with his wand pointed behind him.

"Lumos." A familiar baritone voice said.

Severus stared with narrowed eyes at Cato, but it lighten up upon seeing Cato squinting with a pain filled look on his face, especially with the light near his face.

"What are you doing up, Cato?"

"My head is killing me and I was going to mom's room." Cato answered, turning his head a bit away to get his eyes away from the light.

Severus lowered his wand to not shine it in Cato's face anymore. But he stared at Cato, watching him press his back against the stone wall and clench his head with a low hiss.

"Damn this hurts."

"Language." Severus said, a single eyebrow raised.

Cato eyes clamped shut as the pain intensify then it began dulling. That was when he heard the whispers that became a single voice. A familiar baritone voice.

 _'_ _Headache. A simple potion shall relieve that.'_

"That would be lovely." Cato looked up at Severus.

"What?" Severus eyebrows came together between his eyes, not understanding Cato's response.

The confused tone of Severus got Cato to open his mouth then shut it. His eyes narrowed on his father, wondering why he was questioning him when he had spoken out.

"You just said that you would give me a relief potion for my headache." Cato pointed out.

Severus eyes widen for a split second before he reached out and grabbed Cato by the left bicep. He began dragging Cato behind him. Severus needed to see Octavia about this.

"What are you doing?" Cato asked, confused by Severus actions.

"Cato, what are the exact words I am saying now?" Severus whirled around to face Cato.

Cato stared at Severus with confusion still, especially when Severus mouth wasn't moving. Then that familiar ache began in his head and he felt as if his head was bouncing around then pulse.

 _'_ _We are seeing your mother.'_

"We are seeing my mother? What is going on?" Cato stared with fear as he saw Severus nod then whirled back around, and continue dragging Cato behind him.

Severus ignored Cato as he kept asking questions. Cato soon stopped after a minute of asking as he got no answers from Severus. Severus walked with long strides until he came to the only portrait in a hallway.

The portrait was a woman dressed in a chiffon dress, sitting on a stone bench with a stack of books beside her. What stuck out was the snow leopard cub curled up underneath the bench, tail swishing in a slow back and forth manner. The lady in the portrait was sleeping until Severus waved his lit wand in front of her.

"Do you realize what time it is?" The lady brought her hand up to block the light from flashing in her eyes.

"We need to get in."

"Password." The lady stood up from the bench, crossing her arms over her chest with one of her feet tapping against the stone ground. The snow leopard stretched out then hopped up onto the bench, glaring at them with bright sapphire blue eyes.

"Wiggenweld Potion." Cato answered.

The lady gave a small nod and the portrait swung open. When Cato and Severus entered, they found themselves at an end of a wand.

"It's us, mom."

A flick of the wand and the room lit up. It caused a groan to escape Cato, and he covered his eyes again.

"What is going on? Oh, why are you so pale, honey." Octavia stepped toward Cato and her hands cupped either side of his face.

"I have this headache."

"He is experiencing the beginning of legilimency. I believe it might be a small natural ability or something more." Severus explained the truth.

"What? How? I thought he will have to learn it?" Octavia stared at Severus then her attention was back on Cato where she led him over to the arm chairs in the sitting area of her room.

"He will have to learn it. How to control it? He most likely did not realize he was performing it." Severus explained, staring at Cato leaning his head back in the large arm chair with his eyes closed.

Octavia eyes stared at Severus then she looked at Cato with curiosity.

"Cato, did you read up on anything that had to do with legilimency? Did you attempt to learn it?" Octavia asked, wondering if he might've read about the topic.

Octavia knew that she had books and her medical notes throughout their home and her classroom. She had a section on using legilimency and those that were very skilled legilimens. It was not a common trait to learn and a skill that was difficult to master as one had to delve through layers of someone's mind.

"Um, no. No." Cato shook his head, not opening his eyes.

Octavia did not believe Cato and knew he would not tell her the truth. She glanced at Severus with the tiniest nod to which Severus gave a nod in return and turned his attention on Cato. He pointed his wand at Cato.

Cato eyes snapped open in time to see Severus wand aimed at him.

"Legilimens." Severus said.

Immediately, Severus broke through Cato's walls in his head until he came across a memory of Cato sitting with Isaac, flipping through a book with familiar cursive handwriting. Exiting out of Cato head, Severus looked at Octavia as she stood patiently waiting.

"Did you have to do that?" Cato rubbed his forehead.

"Don't lie to your mother again." Severus dark eyes rested on Cato.

Cato looked down at his lap, knowing he did wrong. He had got into one of his mother's chest that contained her important medical notebooks she wrote in. He was always curious by some of the powerful spells and conditions his mother had to deal with. So, he had taken one of the smaller notebooks and came across Legilimency with Isaac. The two tried to perform it on each other, but nothing happened. Until tonight, when Cato began having these headaches.

"Would you like to tell the truth now?" Octavia asked.

"I took one of your medical notebooks."

"Why? You could had asked me."

"I was curious about the spells you had to deal with as a mediwitch."

Octavia let out a low sigh, rubbing the bridge of her nose before dropping her hand to her side. She stared at Cato for a few moments then she looked over at Severus.

"Cato, why don't you go lie down in the bed. I will help you after."

"Yes, mom." Cato mumbled and left his parents alone to talk.

Once the door shut, Octavia crossed her arms over her chest and let out another sigh.

"He is quick to learn. I will give him that." Severus pointed out.

It wasn't easy to learn such a skill like Legilimency. Of course to Severus, he felt a stroke of proudness for Cato to pick up a bit of the powerful spell and only being a third year.

"Tell me about it." Octavia walked over to the armchair that Cato once sat in and dropped herself into it.

"He has done more?" Severus asked curiously as Octavia's tone signal that Cato done more in the past that someone his age shouldn't be able to do.

"He picks up everything so quickly. Took after you."

"And you." Severus said immediately in return.

The two stared at one another then looked toward the door that led into her bedroom where Cato was most likely sleeping.

"Whatever Isaac and he did, Cato managed to understand pieces of legilimency if he focuses hard. It appeared that he had headaches as a side effect due to not being able to control it." Severus explained as he came to stand by the fireplace to stare at the picture frames on the mantel.

"Interesting. I understand the headaches, but I will question him more about it. I can add more notes to my medical notebook about those that unknowingly trigger the spell." Octavia said, tapping her chin with her right pointer finger with a thoughtful look.

"I will help him control it if it continues."

"I expect nothing less."

Severus turned to stare at her with a calm expression, seeing her with a small grin as she stared at him.

"Thank you for bring him here."

He gave a small nod and showed himself out of her place. He walked down the hallways in the dark, knowing the corridors without light.

For Cato to be understanding legilimency was rare, especially a third year. Severus knew that Octavia could teach Cato to control the legilimens, but she wanted him to do it. He could even train Cato how to do Occlumency if the boy was already able to pick up how to do legilimens spell.

Severus continued walking the dark hallways of Hogwarts with various thoughts in mind.

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 **Hi Everyone,**

 **Here was a new chapter.**

 **Enjoy.**

 **Thank you!**

 ** _Please Review, Favorite, and/or Follow!_**


	15. Chapter 15

**Chapter:** The Chamber and an Alert Felix

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The attacks on the school brought a bit of fear in everyone. The professor had to escort students from classes to classes as a safety precondition.

Students were being led back by the prefects to their common rooms when a voice echo across the hallways of the corridors.

"All students are to return to their house dormitories at once. All teachers to the second-floor corridor immediately." Minerva's voice echoed.

The professors made way through the corridors, ignoring the curious and fear filled eyes of the students. All the incidents happening throughout the school made students to have enough fear in them that they were afraid to leave their common rooms to go to class even with a professor escorting them to their next location.

Professor came to the area where Minerva stood before a wall. Octavia stepped forward to get closer, but stared at the stone wall that had a sentence written in blood.

 ** _'_** ** _Her skeleton will lie in the Chamber forever.'_**

The writing almost sent a chill throughout Octavia. She turned to face Minerva who had a grave look upon her face.

"As you can see, the Heir of Slytherin has left another message." Minerva pointed toward the wall where the writing in blood was.

"Our worst fear has been realized. A student has been taken by the monster into the Chamber itself. The students must be sent home. I'm afraid this is the end of Hogwarts." She added, gazing upon all of the professors that either stare with horrified or concerned expression.

Hearing footfalls coming, the group of professors turned their attention to the right where they watched Gilderoy come rushing in with a few staff members behind him.

"So sorry, dozed off. What have I missed?" Gilderoy bounced on his heels for a second and then clasped his hands behind his back with a goofy smile on his lips.

"A girl has been snatched by the monster, Lockhart. Your moment has come at last." Minerva said with a small eyebrow raised.

The comment made Octavia to look at Severus as he came to stand beside her. The two looked at one another with the same expression that clearly said it all. There was no way that Gilderoy will investigate what was happening to the school. But with all the bragging that Gilderoy did about him solving this situation and that he knew where the Chambers were located, of course Minerva will make him solve this even though he knew that he was a phony. Octavia felt that it was more of getting Gilderoy out of their hair so that they could really focus on the real problem.

"My moment?" Gilderoy said meekly with wide eyes.

"Weren't you saying just last night that you've known all along where the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets is?" Severus said dryly with a single raised eyebrow.

Octavia glanced at Severus in the corner of his eyes with a slyness twinkling in them. She knew that Severus will do anything to get Gilderoy to admit that he was a fake.

"That is settled. We'll leave you to deal with the monster, Gilderoy. Your skills, after all, are legend." Minerva said, eyeing Gilderoy with complete seriousness yet there was a hint of sarcasm to her tone.

"Very well. I'll just be in my office getting, um, getting ready." Gilderoy said with a forced brave voice.

"How much do you want to bet he is going to hightail it out of here tonight?" Octavia muttered to Severus as she stood a little closer to him.

"I bet you a bag of peppermint toads that he will be out of the castle with his bags in fifteen minutes." Severus glanced at her saying.

Peppermint toads or chocolate frogs were the two sweets that Severus and Octavia had in common. Other than those two, Octavia was the only that enjoyed sweets the most. Severus enjoyed pastries more than candy.

"I say thirty minutes. Packed, but then he has to make us think he is actually doing something so he sticks around for a good time." Octavia said as she looked up at him.

"Severus and Octavia." Minerva scolded the two as she overheard them.

Octavia bit her tongue to not laugh out loud and Severus got a tiny twitch of a grin. The two glanced at one another again in the corner of their eyes before they turned their attention back on Minerva at the same time. The two felt that they were being scowled like students by their professor. It wasn't the first time that the two had got scowl by Minerva during their time as Hogwarts students.

"Who is it that the monster's taken, Minerva?" Madam Pomfrey asked as she stepped forward.

"Ginny Weasley." Minerva answered.

The answer was one that had a round of gasps to go around. With a student not being petrified, but taken into the Chambers, appeared worst for they did not know where these Chambers were located. The professor looked at one another as they believed that the school will definitely be shut down now.

With Dumbledore suspended—due to the school board voting for his suspension early this evening—there wasn't much more to do. Minerva could only do so much as the deputy headmistress and what she thought best will come true. With Ginny Weasley in the Chambers made them to feel helpless and unable to act except protect the other students.

Octavia turned away from the wall and began walk around, needing to escape the area. First time back in Hogwarts, first time back home, and all madness was happening. Octavia did not know if that was a sign or not. But then the memory of how Dumbledore told her that Voldemort will be back in the future, Octavia wonder if this was part of it due to the Chambers being related to Salazar Slytherin.

"You are in deep thought."

For almost a moment, Octavia would had reacted with her wand due to everything happening, but she stopped herself. Severus walked alongside her and he kept an easy pace beside her due to his long legs. The two entered a corridor that was empty where no students should be around due to them being led back to their common rooms.

"I had thought about the pervious year before I came here and then this year, all of this is happening since Harry arrived in school. Dumbledore was right." Octavia said the last part lowly.

Octavia halted in her steps, crossing her arms over her chest. She stared out the windows in the hallway, staring out into the night. Her eyes saw Severus reflection in the window, staring at the back of her head, but his eyes flickered up and met her eyes in their window's reflection.

"What was the old man right about?" Severus asked lowly.

"He who must not be named is returning." Octavia turned halfway around and stared directly into Severus's dark eyes.

Severus's face hardened up, not wanting to think about this fact. Octavia could see he knew it was true, and it was not a good thing for them or the wizardry world.

"I'm not going into hiding again. I'm not doing that again with Cato." Octavia stated firmly, turning away from Severus and she was walking again.

In a couple of steps, Severus was walking beside her again.

"You two will not have to go into hiding."

"How would you know? Dumbledore might suggest it again."

Biting his tongue, Severus held back that it was his idea too that she had to go into hiding all those years ago. He swallowed harder than usual, swallowing the honest truth from coming out of his mouth. He took in a steady inhale before a deep, long exhale gone through his nose.

"I won't allow it to happen." Severus said strongly.

Octavia looked at him with raised eyebrows, not expecting his strong tone and a firm facial expression. She could see he did not want her leaving again, and that simple observation made a grin appear on Octavia's lips.

Without a verbal reply, Octavia kept the grin on her lips and gave a nod. She saw Severus nod in return and looked forward, walking around a corner with her into another hallway, where his sharp senses caught something out of place.

When his wand was drawn, Octavia reached for hers and looked around, wondering what was wrong. But he held a hand out and flicked his wand toward a statute. There were startle yelps as the statue came to life, reached down at its side and stood tall with two students in its grasps. But the ruffle states of their uniforms, Octavia and Severus could tell the students were being intimate one another.

"Ten points from Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw." Severus said monotonously.

Once the two were let go by the statue, Octavia stepped forward and glanced over her shoulder at Severus.

"I will bring them back to their dormitories since they are not supposed to be out here." Octavia said, and turning her head back around and shot the two students a disapproval expression.

The two students apologized, and bowed their heads a bit to not meet Severus scowl. Octavia nodded at Severus before she walked forward and by the students, who quickly ran after her when Severus shot them another glare.

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Felix was the one pulling Octavia out of her deep sleeping state. A loud squawking sound and a quick zap snapped Octavia right up, staring around her bedroom and eyes landing on the clock on the nightstand beside her bed.

"It is near midnight, Felix. What the hell?"

The Thunderbird gave a chirp before he flew out of her bedroom. She heard him continue his chirping, making her to get up and walk out of the bedroom. Felix stood by the portrait door, nodding his head at the door.

Octavia held her hand in the air and her wand came from her bedroom and into her right hand. She clenched it and she waved her left hand, the portrait swung open. Felix flew upwards and landed on her shoulder, letting out a soft thrill sound.

"Do you sense danger?" Octavia whispered to Felix.

Felix let out a small yet deep thrill, almost a purr and he bobbled his head.

Octavia walked out of her place and she began her trip down the hallway. She casted a lumos and held it out in front of her while she would glance at Felix, watching him actually bobble his head in the direction he was sensing something. She walked in those directions until she came to a familiar bathroom.

"Why would you lead me here?" Octavia whispered, listening closely and hearing Moaning Myrtle humming a random tune inside the bathroom.

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Severus was about to head to bed when he saw a shadow cast across the walls. Immediately, on guard and muttering about dunderhead students, Severus speed walked toward the hallway. When he rounded the corner, he caught sight of a familiar Thunderbird tails go around a corner.

"Felix?" Severus whispered and put a bit more hop in his steps, jogging a bit.

When Severus came around the corner, Severus saw Felix, but Felix was perched up on top of Octavia's shoulder. She had her wand out and appeared to speak lowly toward the Thunderbird, which would thrill lowly and make head movements. He watched as Octavia followed the direction the Thunderbird bobbled its head.

"First Cato and now Octavia…for Merlin's sake." Severus muttered.

As Severus rounded the corner, he watched as Octavia stepped toward Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. When her stance became defensive with her wand held out, Severus pulled out his wand and walked forward. There was a protective sensation which blanket over him.

"Oct—" Severus was saying, but Octavia lowered her wand.

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Octavia stared with disbelief as she watched Harry, Ron and a daze looked Lockhart step out of Moaning Myrtle's bathroom with Ginny. They were completely covered in dust and some other grimy mucky material, but they looked to be in tact.

A thrill came from the ground, and Octavia looked down to see Fawkes.

"Professor Flamel!" Harry, Ron and Ginny exclaimed at the same time.

"Flamel? Why does that sound so familiar? Do we know one another?" Lockhart said with a confused look.

Octavia stared at Lockhart with a raised eyebrow before she looked at the three Gryffindor's, who shook their head. Ron mouthed 'later,' to which she nodded. Before Octavia could ask them what happened, since they found Ginny, she felt a draft of air touch her body and the three Gryffindor students tensed up and gone wide eyes.

"What are you three doing?"

Octavia turned halfway around and found herself tilt her head back to stare at Severus. His usual emotionless or scowl face turned into a seethed expression. His glare was hard and his teeth slightly showed as he clenched his teeth.

"Um, well, you see…" Harry and Ron began to babble.

"Enough! You three—"

"Will come with me. I have them, Professor Snape." Octavia cut Severus off before he started his rant and about how much trouble they were in.

Severus shot her the glare now, but she shot it right back. Felix even joined in, bobbing his head with narrowed golden eyes. There was a small snicker from Ron, seeing what was being exchange.

"Come along. We will see your head of the house." Octavia waved them ahead of her.

As the students with Lockhart moved down the hallway to head toward Professor McGongall's office, Octavia whirled on Severus.

"Can we not jump to conclusion with them, and for once act normal?"

"There is nothing innocent about what they were doing, Octavia."

"If you haven't notice, Ginny was with them. Even if they broke rules, they saved a girl's life." Octavia replied and turned away to go after the others.

"And they broke rules and they will always get away with it. Just like his father." Severus hissed.

Octavia halted in her steps and turned a little to glance at Severus over her shoulder.

"That boy may be James son, and he may look like James and show some traits, but you need to understand his name is Harry. He would not know what his father had done to you in the past. You are holding a grudge against a boy who never grew up with his parents, and no one even talks about his parents around him. Don't put a bad memory of his parents in his head. The way he sees them, he views them the way he wishes he could view them if they were alive…Cato had a vision of you in his head before he met you…he saw you as someone he wanted to look up to…don't ruin Cato's vision the way you want to ruin Harry's view on his father because of your old, past grudges." Octavia spoken so softly before she turned away and walked after the others, not wanting to hear Severus reply.

As Octavia walked away, she kept a strong look set on her face. She would not be bother by how Severus acted because it was how he always acted. Now, they were older, and Octavia was not a teenager anymore. She would not stand aside like she used to do when Severus would rant about James Potter and Sirius Black. She would not be quiet and let him rant and have the power. She would not do that anymore, because she used to do that to be the 'good little girlfriend that stuck by her boyfriend's side.' She was a grown woman now, and she would continue to remind herself to try not tolerate such actions anymore.

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 **…** **..**

 **…** **..**

 **Hi Everyone,**

 **Here was a new chapter.**

 **Enjoy!**

 **Thank You!**

 ** _Please Review, Favorite, and/or Follow!_**


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